The Purest Intent
by emperorsjudgement
Summary: Those aboard the colonial arkship The Purest Intent when it left swore never to return to Sol but the arkship is back and she may not have come back alone...
1. It's all metal

Aboard Asteroid Breaker Frigate Southsea Castle

The object hurtling through the Kuiper Belt at over two hundred and ninety miles per second could not know the impact it was going to have on the human race, by its very nature it could not know that it heralded the changing of everything. For several years the thousands of unmanned monitoring stations dubbed the _Silent Sentinels_ strung out between where the heliosphere met the Kuiper Belt did not pick up on the massive object or its trajectory as it hurtled through the Oort cloud for its mass was not catalogued.

The monitoring stations and the monumental databanks and processors which they fed were incapable of mapping the entirety of the Kuiper Belt or the Oort cloud so no attempt had ever been made, that was never the silent sentinel's purpose. The sentinels were created to catalogue and track only the largest of asteroids and comets to monitor their movements in case their predicted paths threatened any settled stellar bodies.

It was only when the monitoring stations nearest to the object detected its gravity field displacing dust, ice crystals, rocks and even minor asteroids as it passed through the Kuiper Belt did the sentinels notice something was amiss. When the sentinels attempted to match its mass, dimension and trajectory with known catalogues they concluded that it was an unknown mass likely originating from the interstellar medium. At approximately forty six kilometres long and ten kilometres at its widest point the sentinels logged it as a major cause for concern, even more so as it was projected to head directly into the systems core left unmolested it would head for Earth.

Under standard protocol asteroids or comets under ten kilometres in length the sentinels would alert the handful of manned monitoring posts stationed around the heliosphere so that they could track their progress. The manned stations would then make the decision whether weapons platforms dotted between the sentinels needed to be brought to readiness so that they could destroy the offending body. This objects sheer size necessitated the sentinels to shriek their warning to the nearest naval base.

At this part of the heliosphere the closest naval base was the starport _Silent Citadel_ orbiting Pluto, due to the dwarf planets eccentric orbit being inside the sentinel monitoring ring and in fact inside the orbit of Neptune. Less than an hour after receiving the alert the commander of the starport dispatched the rapid response frigate _Southsea Castle_ commanded by the impetuous Captain Daniel Everson to intercept the object to assess if an asteroid breaker flotilla would need to be dispatched or if the frigate itself could break up or reroute the asteroid.

Sitting in his command throne Captain Everson felt completely unenthused, yes this object was significantly larger than anything that encroached the solar system in decades but asteroids were no longer the threat they used to be. The human race was far too technologically advanced to be snuck up on by rocks that spelled the doom for the dinosaurs.

Captain Everson believed his skills could be better used elsewhere, but the Admiralty had deemed otherwise. The captain wished that he was assigned a vessel capable of taking the fight to pirates and so called freedom fighters at large in the outer and even the inner colonies of the Sol system. The asteroid breaker Southsea Castle wasn't even a combat orientated unit but with a triple fire rail cannon she could kick like a mule. The only way Captain Everson would see some action would be if the threat of freedom fighters became graver but that was not likely to happen as attacks were in decline no matter what the media said, so for now trans-Neptunian objects were his enemy.

Whenever he would bring up his boredom with his second in command Executive Officer Jeanette Peterson. Aside from having a go at him, she also never failed to remind him that their duty was an important one. Considering that humanity was at its height in terms of space exploration and colonisation, every terrestrial planet as well as the major moons of the gas giants were colonised.

Therefore the damage an errant asteroid or comet could cause to humanity would be catastrophic. In the captains opinion humanities expansion into the heavens was down to one thing. The removal of independent nations and the formation of the United Solar Council with humanity under one banner working for the betterment of all humanity had went through the most rapid advancement in technology in human history. It was vessels like the _Southsea Castle_ that bore the fruit of that technology that protected the citizens of the USC from harm, Captain Everson was proud but it was so damned boring.

Captain Everson looked at his watch it was 19:00, if the call hadn't come in he could have made happy hour at his favourite bar in the starport _The Duke of York._ The captain just hoped that the asteroid was too difficult for them to break up themselves if it wasn't they would be stuck out here until it was safely destroyed or deflected it back into the Oort cloud. Captain Everson couldn't use lack of provisions as an excuse either as Jeanette always planned for the worst they were permanently provisioned for twelve months of isolation away from the nearest starport. Captain Everson looked to his watch again it was 19:05, he groaned with received a look of derision from XO Peterson.

Captain Everson ignored the look, he had been looking forward to happy hour, a drunken stupor then a well-deserved hangover now they might not get back before night fall. Not that there was a true nightfall on a spaceship or a star port. Even though the planets of the solar systems day cycles varied in the extreme from Jupiter taking ten hours to Venus taking five thousand eight hundred and thirty two hours. The people of the sol system still used a the twenty four hour cycle of Earth including naval vessels to keep ship time, during night cycles the lights would dim to give the impression of darkness. Keeping to the Earth day night cycle was only a problem for those who lived on Venus as they had to go to great lengths to simulate night time during such long day periods.

Captain Everson stretched out in his command throne he accepted that he was stuck out here until the job he decided he would day dream to occupy himself as he knew there was nothing he needed to do until they closed with the asteroid. Captain Everson didn't need to supervise his bridge crew they were slick they knew their job well, plus his XO drilled them continuously. Captain Everson thought back to the rumours that were abound last night in the Duke of York of a major push being planned to crush the freedom fighter movement once and for all. Captain believed it to be hyperbole but if it were true then they might actually be reassigned. Captain Everson knew it wouldn't be a combat posting but at the height of the Night of the 13th Revolution asteroid breakers were drafted in to obliterate freedom fighters holed up in asteroids, if the rumours were true then maybe Captain Everson would get his chance to do some good.

Captain Everson decided to distract himself again before he got frustrated, he looked around his bridge ignoring his XO's baleful stare she knew he was bored, he gazed in turn at his two Helmsman, two Communications Offices, two Navigators, two Weapons Officers and the Master at Arms they were dutifully performing their task. Captain Everson always felt a mild sense of claustrophobia when on the bridge with its cramped utilitarian space of tiered work stations facing a giant view screen taking up the entire frontage of the bridge, he had been on a battleship once with its massive flying bridge he hoped to command one someday.

The bridge itself was built into the centre of the _Southsea Castle,_ the images shown were projected from various cameras built into various points of the frigate. Early warship builders suggested placing the bridge at the fore of the vessel with reinforced glass protecting it but this was deemed tactically unsound, Captain Everson vehemently agreed with this.

Captain Everson felt the change of pitch in the frigates fusion reactor, knowing that the helmsman was now steering the _Southsea Castle_ past the silent sentinels and towards the Kuiper Belt, in order to intercept the asteroid. The deck of the frigate began to tremble gently as it neared its maximum velocity of one quarter light speed but it wouldn't be at that speed for long.

It amused Captain Everson a little knowing that as soon as they reached their desired speed they would need to slow down drastically to be able to intercept the errant asteroid and not overshoot it would be funny if they missed but thanks to XO Peterson they never missed. Bored once again Captain Everson decided to pull out the big guns fished out an antiquated toy from a compartment in his command throne, ironically the toy a Rubik's cube had been bought for his son to teach patience. The lesson didn't take and the Captain found himself playing with the 1970's toy when he needed a distraction plus it allowed the captain to play his second most favourite game pissing off XO Peterson and he didn't have to wait long.

'I wish you would stop doing that.' Stated Executive Officer Jeanette Peterson, she was a hard faced woman with greying blonde hair scraped up into a tight pony tail.

'I wish you would stop doing that, _Sir_.' Corrected Captain Everson, in an amused tone. His XO was top notch they had a great working relationship but she bristled at her Captains random acts of boredom especially in front of the crew.

'We operate by following your example, _sir_.' Hissed the XO, in hushed tones. 'If you were a menial you would be locked in the brig for dereliction of duty.'

'Command has its perks.' Smirked the Captain, admittedly he enjoyed goading his XO more than he enjoyed playing with the toy. 'Besides I have nearly solved it.'

Now it was the XO's turn to smirk. 'You've been trying to solve it for four years, you're never going to do it.'

'Maximum speed reached.' Called out the helmsman. 'Decelerating now, time to intercept is four minutes.'

'Very good.' Stated the XO, breaking from her usual lesson of command etiquette. 'Appraise me when we reach visual range.' She then turned to the frigates Navigation Officers. 'I want a full reading of the asteroids make up as soon as we are within sensor range.'

Captain Everson grumbled to himself in frustration his XO was right he was never going to solve this thing, he was sure that the vid's he had seen of people solving the damn thing in under six seconds were fake, at this rate he would need another six years. The Captain knew that there were tutorials on how to solve it but he would rather drown in ignorance than stoop so low but he was still so frustrated as he had never managed to solve even one side of colours. Now and then his XO threatened to paint the sides to stop him from fiddling with it.

'Sir!' stated his XO in her sternest of tones not too far from a shout.

Captain Everson realised now that she must have been speaking to him for some time. 'Yes?'

'We have the readings from the asteroid.' Stated the XO, with concern written across her features.

'And?'

'It is metal.'

'Asteroids are often made up of metal.' Retorted the Captain, the smirk returning to his face as he still busied himself with the Rubik's cube. 'As well as rock ice and many other things.'

The XO moved so quickly that Captain Everson didn't see the blow coming, she slapped the Rubik's cube out of his hand it struck the deck and smashed into a dozen pieces.

'What did you do that for?' Asked the Captain. 'That was an antique!'

'It's all metal!' screamed the XO.

'No it's not its plastic, well it was you've broken it.'

'Not the damn Rubik's cube you dolt!' exclaimed the XO. 'The asteroid is metal, it is all metal. Not just that the metals registered are processed metals ones which do not occur in nature, do you get it now! We have a major problem here!'

A sudden shiver of fear traced its way down his spine as he realised why his XO was so bent out of shape. 'That can't be possible how can an asteroid have unnatural processed metals in it.'

XP Harrison shrugged. 'I don't know but this one bloody well has.'

Captain Everson took a moment to compose himself he looked to his bridge crew in turn they looked back at him with apprehension written across their faces as they knew what the asteroid could really be. The Captain looked to the smashed Rubik's cube and felt ashamed of his years of neglect, what they must think of him. From now on he would act like a Captain should and shelve his petty thoughts of being abandoned at the systems edge.

Captain Everson stood up from his command throne and kicked away the remains of the toy, he looked to his navigators. 'Could the sensor readings be wrong?'

'Negative, Captain.' Replied the Lead Navigation Officer. 'We have scanned several objects in the vicinity and they read as expected.'

'Very well.' Stated Captain Everson. 'Could the object be a friendly vessel that has not sent the correct handshake protocols with the sentinel's?'

'Unlikely, sir.' Put in the Lead Communications Officer. 'The object does not display any transponder or electrical signals whatsoever, well at least none that we can recognise. I also hasten to add that this object was tracked by the sentinels from the edge of the Oort cloud.

'I am fairly confident that if it is a craft it is not one of ours. I would like to add that we have tried to make contact with no response, we cannot even pick up electronic handshake protocols, the thing isn't even displaying transponder codes whatever it is its either inert or powered down.'

'Understood.' Stated the Captain, he could not believe what he was about to say, it took him several seconds to phrase the words. 'We are to beat to quarters, raise shields and warm up all weapons batteries. We may well be dealing with an unidentified craft of unknown origin.'

'Shall we report it to the _Silent Citadel_?' asked his XO, in a hushed tone. There were warning claxons sounding as the bridge was bathed in red light. The Master at Arms ordered the vessels standing compliment of a hundred marines to combat readiness they would be spreading themselves between the bridge, the reactor and boarding points.

'Negative.' Replied the Captain. 'We shall proceed with extreme caution and recon the object, if we aren't recording make sure we are now we need to catalogue this with picts and vids.'

'Captain under standard naval protocol upon detecting a vessel of unknown origin we are to report it to the nearest naval base as soon as it has been detected.'

'You do not need to quote regulations to me.' Retorted the Captain, the smirk returning to his face. 'I didn't spend all of my time playing with toys, you are right we shall report it in but just as soon as we know what we are dealing with. I am not about to report an unidentified object without seeing the thing first, it might well turn out to be a freak all metal asteroid after all 16 Psyche is still kicking around in the asteroid belt.'

The XO stared at him for several moments, he knew that she was not happy that they were not firing an immediate warning to the _Silent Citadel_ , therefore he compromised. 'Have the Communications Officer prepare Disaster Protocol, in the event that we that we run into hostilities.'

'Very well, Captain.' Replied the XO, looking more satisfied.

The Disaster Protocol consisted of several messages in reinforced missiles being fired from cannons at several points in the frigate. These were manual weapons, using explosive charges therefore not needing electricity to be fired. It meant that aside from complete instant obliteration a ship could send a final message even without power. The missiles were EMP shielded and once they reached a reasonable safe distance the missile would deconstruct itself into a communications beacon and send the message.

'Coming into visual range in thirty seconds!' called out the helmsman.

'Approach the object at an oblique angle.' Stated the Captain, he didn't want to seem too keen. 'Conduct a flyby, keep us slow and steady, we don't want to seem in a hurry or that we have violent intent.'

'Aye, Aye.' Replied the helmsman as he corrected the _Southsea Castles_ trajectory.

There was an eerie silence which settled on the bridge, even the constant thrum of the ships reactor seemed muted. Under standard protocol the helmsman would call out the distance and time to target but he like the rest of the crew were lost for words under the enormity of the situation.

'Bringing up an image of the object.' Stated the helmsman, his voice barely above a whisper.

The view screen of outside space on the colossal screen panned and zoomed for several moments nothing could be seen but the blackness of space and the stars, but then one star grew larger, it was immediately evident that it was not an asteroid. It was a ship that was obvious but the Navigators called out that its build pattern did not match any known USC build pattern.

It was still too far out for clear visibility but even from this distance the bridge crew could make out a vaguely isosceles shape. As Captain Everson stared at the growing shape a wave of recognition swept over him as he was sure he recognised her build profile but he couldn't be sure until they got closer.

'It's a ship.' Said the XO in a frantic hushed voice she looked to her captain. 'Daniel look it's a ship what do we do now?'

'We will proceed with extreme caution and reconnoitre her.' Replied the captain he turned to his weapons officer and operations officer. 'We are to keep at battle readiness If that ship so much as comes about I want to hit it with everything we have.'

'Aye captain.' Replied the helmsman and the weapons officers.

There was a silence in the air every one of the crew not assigned not essential tasks were looking at the growing shape looming on the viewscreen.

'Look at the ship its colossal.' Stated Jeanette, she then looked to her captain with fear in her eyes. 'Do you think they are aliens?'

'I don't know.' replied the captain, even though he had an inkling what it was he couldn't be sure.

'I bloody well hope not.' XO Peterson sighed. 'It looks like it is travelling backwards you would expect it would travel with its vertex angle to the fore, but its base is at the fore surely it would suffer from lack of drive coverage?'

'That as it may be.' Stated the Captain, he was straining his eyes to try and make out all the details of the ship. 'That as it may be.'

The Southsea Castle closed with the errant vessel and now he was sure he knew the identity of the vessel but he couldn't begin to fathom why it was back her, they said they would never come back. Despite evidently having the jump on his bridge crew, he felt nervous the butterflies were replaced by a pit of worry. _Why was it back here they swore to never come back?_

'Captain-' Stated the XO in hushed tones as she turned to face him she looked unable to form the words for several seconds. '-we may need to initiate First Contact.'

'It won't come to that.' replied Captain Everson.

The XO looked ashen. 'Sir you can't mean to say that you mean to fire on the vessel think of the implications?'

'No, Jeannette.' Soothed the Captain. 'I mean we won't have to initiate First Contact or fire on the vessel, well perhaps not yet for I know what the vessel is it certainly isn't alien it is of human origin.'

'That can't be right.' Cut in the Lead Navigation Officer. 'We have ran its profile through every known United Solar Council build record since records began we have come up with nothing.'

'That is because this vessel predates the formation of the United Solar Council and such it is missing from the meticulously kept records.' Replied Captain Everson, the feeling of unease growing as he could not theorize why the ship would have come back. 'The vessel was built during the days of the United Earth Council and the colonies ruling themselves as independent governments, even if you did have access to the records of the colonies or the UEC before unification the vessel would still not show up on their records either as it was an entirely private funded venture.'

'Put us out of our misery then.' said the XO. 'What is the name of the vessel?'

'You know of it.' Stated Captain Everson, he looked around the bridge with a barely concealed wry smile. 'You all know it for she is the _Purest Intent_.'

There were gasps of shock the vessel may have drifted out of the lime light and living memory but like the ill-fated _RMS Titanic_ , the merest mention of its name brought the memory of the Purest Intent flooding back. It was an Arkship a privately funded project mostly by those who sailed upon her, their purpose to sail from their birth system and travel to Proxima Centauri the closest star system to sol there they colonise the system to be a kingdom a law unto themselves.

The journey of the _Purest Intent_ had begun before the advent of more powerful sub-light fusion reactors and drives meaning it was a voyage that would take at least three centuries. It had flung itself free of the Oort Cloud over a hundred and fifty years ago and should have been more than half way to Proxima Centauri by now the captain thought to himself. _What the hell was it doing back in the Solar system?_

'It left what ninety years ago.' Stated his XO. 'It couldn't be back here could it?'

'It's been one hundred and fifty seven years.' Replied Captain Everson, he stared at the image of the vessel getting larger every second. The _Purest Intent_ should be nowhere near here, he thought of the _Titanic_ once more and felt a strong sense of foreboding. 'No it shouldn't be back here but that is the Purest Intent I am sure of it.'

'Should we ready the hospital deck and mess decks in case we need to bring people aboard?' asked the XO.

'Negative.' Replied the Captain, still staring at the ship. 'We are to stay at combat readiness.'

'Sir surely we cannot advance upon them with cannons at the ready they are our own.'

'Those aboard the _Purest Intent_ when it left Sol.' Said Captain Everson. 'They publicly renounced their citizenship of the Sol system, they did not want to be ruled by the United Earth Council nor the fledgling colonies' they left to forge their own destiny, they would never come back to their cradle willingly. They do not answer our hails and seemed to be drifting dead in space, until we can communicate with them they are to be treated as hostile.'

'Very well Captain.' Replied his XO, several moments of silence hung between them. 'I wonder why they came back?'

Captain Everson shrugged. 'The only reason I could fathom is that their life support systems, hydroponic farms or propulsion units failed or all three. If they aren't ignoring us then their communications are down, plus it looks like they have no power. Like I've said I don't think they would come back willingly if they suffered catastrophic failure they may have turned they ship around and burned the last of their power to build up to a velocity which would bring them to sol via inertia alone.'

'You seem to know a lot about the Arkship.' Replied the XO, Jeanette found it endearing learning more about her superior officer, his eyes were alight with passion for the first time in years.

'Of course I do.' Replied Captain Everson, a smile forming thinking of his childhood memories. 'I loved learning about the _Purest Intent_ when I was a child. I would run around the neighbourhood pretending I was the Captain and that the neighbourhood bullies were aliens, that got me into a fight or two I can tell you. The _Purest Intent_ is what inspired me to join the navy.'

'It is them who we have to blame then?' asked the XO rhetorically, while nudging him playfully she had not seen this side of him before it was inspiring.

'It is them indeed.' Replied the Captain, enjoying the softening of his Executive Officers demeanour. Captain Everson then spoke to his Lead Navigator then his Helmsman. 'Keep scanning on all known frequencies for any sign of communication take us in slowly Helmsman I want a closer look at her. I want picts and vids taken from here on out we have to record this.'

As the _Southsea Castle_ closed on the _Purest Intent_ Captain Everson felt like a child again, sitting in his bedroom watching documentary vid's of the Arkship's construction and footage of her leaving for the Oort cloud and interstellar space beyond. Captain Everson recalled the final broadcast where her the leader of the civic government Robert Polson where he announced the name of the vessel, up until that point it had been shrouded in secrecy. Forever and always Captain Everson would remember Robert Polson's final words, "…it is with great pride that I announce the name of this vessel as it defines the very underpinning of our endeavour, I give you the _Purest Intent._ "

Closing on the monster vessel it looked exactly as he remembered in those vid's at the time it was the largest vessel humanity had every created. In truth even today it was still one of the largest, it looked like a colossal spear head. It perplexed Captain Everson that it was travelling backwards but that was just one of many mysteries to be answered. The most important one being what the hell was it doing here?

The _Southsea Castle_ closed to within three kilometres it now filled to view screen, it was gunmetal grey and unpainted. The Jovian Shipwrights knew that the _Purest Intent_ needed no embellishment, the vessels sheer size more than stated her majesty. The frigate closed with its colossal flank Captain Everson noticed scorch marks across the vessels hull as well as hundreds of holes blown into her flank, the feeling of unease grew in the pit of the Captains stomach perhaps the Arkship had fell victim to micrometeorites.

Closing within a kilometre Captain Everson knew instantly now what the holes and scorch marks were, they were weapons fire, something had attacked the _Purest Intent_. Then another thought hit Captain Everson, in the response to this he thought he was going to hyperventilate. The thought was that the Arkship was not the only vessel to leave the Solar system on its illustrious voyage. It left with an escort of frigates, cruisers, battleships and two carriers, as well as several manufactorium vessels. If the _Purest Intent_ was here then where the hell were they? Captain Everson now noticed three massive holes blown into the Arkship around these the metal had warped into ripples like a pebble dropped in a pond frozen in time.

'I want a closer look at those larger holes start with the one closest to the bow.' Ordered Captain Everson.

The helmsman did as he was ordered and the view screen increased in magnification so that it focussed on the hole in the bow. There were no scorch marks here nor explosive rents indicative of modern weapons the edge of the hole be is rippled was smooth unlike anything know human weapons could accomplish. Captain Everson now noticed something he could not appreciate before, through the centre of the hole, the captain could see starlight the _Purest Intent_ had been holed through. Without needing to be ordered the helmsman panned to the two other holes they too holed through the Arkship, although the centre hole was the largest of the three.

'Do you think we should board her?' asked the XO, although she didn't look confident at the prospect.

'Not in this lifetime.' Retorted Captain Everson, suppressing a shiver.

'I can't believe I am hearing that from you.' Replied Jeanette. 'This could be your ticket to the front line if you find out what happened to the Arkship.'

'Look at her.' Replied the Captain, pointing at the gargantuan vessel. 'The _Purest Intent_ was fired upon that is plain to see. The Arkship left with escorts they aren't here there may have been a civil conflict. What is more likely is that the _Purest Intent_ has been attacked by something else.'

'Something else?' asked the XO dumbly, fear bleaching her face white.

'The three massive holes I cannot account for the ordnance used.' Replied the Captain, he couldn't believe he was going to have to speak the words out loud. 'We have to take into consideration that something else attacked the Arkship. We may well be dealing with an attack from an extra-terrestrial race that warping effect is beyond our means to manufacture not let alone when the colonists left.'

'What do we do?' asked his XO, Captain Everson had never seen Jeanette look so worried. It very nearly unmanned him as she was normally so stoic.

'This is a sensitive situation.' Stated Captain Everson, looking at the view screen, he then looked back at his XO, he looked like a changed man. 'We need to tread carefully.'

There was a silence settle across the bridge with only the whirr of the bridges machinery and the muted tapping of commands into consoles. Captain Everson was enormously proud of his bridge crew in these few moments not one of them looked up from their tasks or swept up in the enormity of the situation. The same could not be said for the captain and his XO their orders being followed they were left to gawp at the ghost ship before them.

The XO closed to stand at her captains' shoulder and whispered. 'Should we send in drones to take a look?'

Captain Everson thought for a long moment sending in drones would significantly reduce the risk of casualties but his counter thought overruled the first he spoke this out loud returning the whisper. 'We have no idea what happened to her or what's still in there. If there is something in there I don't want to be the one to find it, as soon as I report this in military intelligence will be all over it I won't have my ship impounded and my crew arrested by the Security Council.'

'We might be arrested anyway.' Replied his XO, with a daunted look. 'If Director Sagittar wants this to be kept a secret we could be detained indefinitely.'

'I still won't send in drones.' Replied the captain. 'Although I would like to have as much information as I can for when I make my report. Scan her with our high-gain gear see if we can get a picture of what shape she is in. Then take us out to three kilometres and follow her bow. You have the bridge I will be in my state room, apprise me when we are clear. Send the captured picts, vids and scans to my personal terminal.'

Without another word Captain Everson left the bridge he entered the stateroom an anteroom off the bridge, he ignored his desk and trappings of command. Instead he opened a wall safe which was unknown even to his XO, it was a feature of all ships in the Asteroid Breaker Fleet although its existence was known only to their Captains.

In it was a secure line to encrypted relay beacons that fed the Security Council headquarters built deep within the bowels of Olympus Mons on Mars. With the appearance of the Arkship, Captain Everson almost forgot about his duties as Captain. Now he had to tell military intelligence of their contact with the Arkship, more than that he had to tell them about what he suspected had attacked her.

The wall safe on any breaker fleet had never been used for it was only to be used when there was a potential contact with extra-terrestrial life, the wall safes had never been used as no one actually thought that aliens even if they existed would never happen across their system for intergalactic space was just too big. Now it looked as though the _Purest Intent_ had made First Contact and it didn't look to have gone very well, not well at all.

Captain Everson typed a series of commands into the secure line and upon receiving the connection tone he delivered his message. 'This is Captain Daniel Everson, commanding officer of the _Southsea Castle_ a frigate in the Asteroid Breaker flotilla stationed at the starport _Silent Citadel_ in orbit around Pluto. We were sent to reconnoitre an errant asteroid sum twenty six kilometres in diameter.

'We have intercepted the asteroid, I now report that it is not an asteroid, I repeat it is not an asteroid. The mass is a vessel of human design, the vessel is the _Purest Intent_. I repeat the vessel is the Arkship _Purest Intent._ It has entered the Solar system, it is travelling with its stern to the fore. I repeat it is travelling backwards, though I fear not under its own power.

'The _Purest Intent_ has entered Sol alone it is not accompanied by any of its escorts and it has been attacked. The damage done to the vessels flanks do not match any known ordinance carried by the _Purest Intent_ or its escorts when they left on their voyage to Proxima Centauri.

'I therefore have to assume that the Arkship _Purest Intent_ has been attacked by extra-terrestrials. I repeat I believe that the _Purest Intent_ has been attacked by extra-terrestrials. I am sending vids and picts of the damage done to the Arkship, we are following the vessel as it heads towards the Silent Sentinels, we are awaiting further orders.'

Captain Everson left the safe open to await further orders he just sat on the deck he felt overwhelmed here he was at the systems edge thinking he had been abandoned. Now he was at the forefront of potentially the greatest discovery ever. Worse still humanity might be embroiled in an interstellar war and had only just found out over a century and a half later.


	2. The Very Worst of Times

Security Council, Olympus Mons, Mars – Four Hours After Arkship's Detection

Victor Sagittar the Director of the Security Council was walking through a lava tube, in the bowels of the long extinct volcano Olympus Mons on Mars. The lava tube led to one of the dedicated subterranean space ports that were solely utilised by the Security Council. Victor was headed for a shuttle assigned to Lord Admiral Xavier Dante's flagship _USC_ _Inferno._ The entire High Council were to convene aboard the flagship to welcome their new council member Professor David Byrd. Professor Byrd's inauguration would not be the jubilant affair that it ought to be, for the professor was being elevated to replace the late Professor Timothy Dexter, whom was murdered in a terrorist attack.

Professor Dexter had always intended for his mentee Professor Byrd to take up the reins of government, but the sudden and heinous manner of his mentor's demise had shaken the professor to his core. In the wake of the assassination Professor Byrd locked himself away in his labs built into Pavonis Mons, one of the three dormant Tharsis volcanoes to the east of Olympus Mons. Professor Byrd's self-enforced absentia was more than grief for the passing of his mentor it was more the fact that the professor doubted the manner of Professor Dexter's death.

Professor Byrd had not publically denounced the official line but he had asked poignant questions that had found their way to Victor's ear. The Director would have to find a way of dealing with his grieving colleague before long lest he actually stumble across the truth. With operation Inauguration Day going ahead today Victor hoped it would go some way to winning over Professor Byrd. At the very least he would surely win over some of the Low Council when they released a statement that some of those suspected of murdering Professor Dexter had been dealt with.

The low council were trying to downsize security council spending. Not just that they were trying to downsize the navy and the military. What was worse for the director was the fact that the low council were gaining traction he needed to halt it and soon. There were two main reasons for the traction with the civilian populace was the fact that special interest groups who wanted to introduce fractional reserve banking practices policies or start their own countries had infiltrated the low council it was a shadow war the security council had fought for centuries by rooting out corruption wherever it could be found.

These special interests groups were putting pressure on the president elect and she was malleable as she was too afraid of losing her chance at a third term. Victor had reams of evidence that President Elect Strauss was leaking military expenditure which was farcical as their financial systems were interest and debt free meaning it had no impact on the wellbeing of the economy if anything the spending increased wellbeing as every credit spent on military spending put at least ten back into the economy.

The traction from the citizenry was an inherited race memory left over from former capitalist countries and debt based fiat currency. In such a system every penny spent by the government and in fact every bit of money in the economy was owed back to someone with a percentage of interest attached. Meaning that if every penny of currency was paid back there would be no money left in the system and there would still be interest left to pay. Such as system was ludicrous in the extreme and had damaged the psyche of entire generations to come.

The second reason was the fact that the gargantuan USC military factions as well as private military formations were running out of enemies to fight and with four out of every ten men in a branch of the military those figures were sticking out like a sore thumb. True enough there were freedom fighter bands and fuel raiders throughout the inner and outer colonies but they were spread thin their numbers were nothing like the decades following the Night of the 13th Revolution.

For the last decade the security council had been feeding misinformation to the media jazzing up the numbers of freedom fighters at large and the threat they posed but even that was failing despite releasing rumours of a big push to rid Sol of evil men. In the last twelve months Victor had been forced to take drastic action to secure military expenditure it had been a great risk but it seemed to have worked and with Operation Inauguration Day happening today it would tie up the last of those loose ends.

'Director!' came a shout from behind Victor halting him in his tracks he turned to see that it had been Rebecca one of his most trusted operatives. She and her colleague Adam were sprinting towards him, the fact that they were running didn't bode well the echo of their shoes reverberating throughout the lava tube.

Rebecca closed with Victor then came to a halt, she was out of breath and handed the director a data pad. Victor took it then immediately read its contents, after reading the data pad his blood ran cold. It had been a very long time since anything had had that effect on him.

'It has been verified?' asked Victor incredulously.

'Yes director.' Replied Rebecca, she was a pale beautiful woman with her raven hair tied up into a tight pony tail. 'Captain Everson is tailing the Arkship awaiting orders.'

Victor was fuming there would never be a good time for the reappearance of the _Purest Intent_ it would have been better for the director if the Arkship had been destroyed, he knew there was a strong chance it would make it back but he hoped it wouldn't be in his lifetime. No there was never a good time for it appear but now was the very worst of times. For most of a standard Earth year if needs be the director could drop the veil of secrecy under the guise of security and conduct operations away from prying eyes but today of all days he had absolutely no excuse for going missing. Victor knew that if the ship made it back he would have to be there in person to conduct the operation, he had been hoping that this day would never come but now he had and questions would be asked.

Time was now of the essence Victor would be missed and they would surely come looking but he had absolutely no intention of sharing Captain Everson's report with the High Council too many damned civilians and too many leaks they couldn't be trusted, especially not President Elect Strauss. Helena would either blurt it out to her underlings or use it to cement her place in history, she was vein enough to want to be remembered that under tenure humanity discovered the existence of extraterrestrials. If Victor could pull it off no one would know that the Purest Intent had returned, the Security Council would redirect the Arkship to their secret research and development facility on Eris, a facility that no one knew about outside the Security Council.

'What's the fastest vessel that can be made ready to leave immediately?' asked Victor, looking to Rebecca and Adam.

'The shuttle waiting for you.' Quipped Adam, while smirking.

'I have no intention of boarding that shuttle.' Countered Victor. 'The High Council would be able to track it. We can't even trust the High Council with this information, we need to get to that Arkship and hide it from the solar system, first we need to get off the ground before they notice I am gone.'

'The stealth corvette _Sigma Five Zero_ is in the middle of pre-flight checks.' Stated Adam, but Victor could see that Adam was holding something back. 'She was meant to run ahead of the _Inferno_ to scan for potential ambush.'

'Who is in command of the corvette?' asked Victor, but he felt like he wasn't going to like the answer.

Adam hesitated momentarily. 'It's Captain Elizabeth Lerida.'

Victor rolled his eyes that's all he needed, all spook captains were drafted in from the USC Naval Academy. Most naval graduates adapted to a career in the intelligence services given enough time but Captain Lerida had too much of the navy still in her for Victors liking to his chagrin she believed in a credo of openness.

'There are no others?' Asked Victor, his face darkened he would rather have walked to the systems edge than travel with Captain Lerida. He knew that she despised him and had appealed directly to his fellow High Council member Lord Admiral Dante for reassignment out of the Security Council on no fewer than six hundred occasions.

'None that couldn't be made ready in the timeframe you propose.' Replied Adam. 'Considering you wish to leave immediately.'

'Very well we are going to commandeer the corvette and take it to the Arkship.' Stated Victor. 'I want signals sent to Shadow Admiral Hurley to run under obscurement and make for the same location with as many vessels and personnel as she dares. We also need mission specialists I want the foremost authorities on the _Purest Intent_ brought to me by the time we are at the systems edge, do not disclose why we need them but bring them to me by any means necessary abduct them for all I care.'

'Abduct?' asked Rebecca, with a wry look of amusement on her face.

'Think of something.' Replied Victor. 'We need them for an indeterminate length of time whatever you do make it believable, a breakdown, a lottery win, an affair I don't give a damn.

'I just don't want a news story of how the only authorities on the _Purest Intent_ go missing to be tomorrows headline. When they are taken seize any documents or electronic devices that may contain information on the Arkship, schematics would be helpful.'

'Snatch and grab it is.' Said Rebecca. 'Anything else?'

'Have the starport the _Southsea Castle_ originated from placed under lockdown.' Replied Victor. 'As well as every monitoring station and weapons platform within detection range of the Arkship tell them nothing just make sure they are deaf and blind. That goes double for Captain Lerida we tell her nothing until we are clear of Mars.

'I do not have the patience to discuss the transparency of governance. Send a communiqué to Captain Everson make sure he understands that in no uncertain terms that he is working for us now for the duration of this operation. What do we know about him can he be relied upon?'

'According to his commanders last evaluation.' Replied Rebecca with a sly smile. 'Captain Daniel Everson is and I quote directly from the document "sick and tired of blasting the hell out of frozen lumps of shit at the arse end of the galaxy."

Victor laughed out loud. 'Then I believe he will be malleable inform Captain Everson that if he complies with our parameters I will ensure that he is transferred from his post and into the Security Council. I don't suppose Price could be pulled out of before we depart?'

'No director.' Replied Adam. 'Price is already with Mother Goose aboard the Inferno.'

Price made up the triumvirate of his most trusted operatives although he was rarely in their company he specialised in deep cover operations he had infiltrated the highest echelons of the Low Council, Mother Goose was President Elect Strauss. Price was her most closest confidante and advisor he had been with her at the very beginning of her political career. Price had befriended her even before she stood a chance at becoming president elect, in fact it was likely he knew she had a chance to be president elect even before she did.

Victor continued down the lava tube with Rebecca and Adam in toe they began issuing orders as they marched in his wake they emerged into an immense cavern. The ground had been flattened and concreted moulding into a landing field of a spaceport, the ceiling was as it had been for millions of years, stalactites hung from the cavernous roof. Across the concrete floor stood hundreds of space craft of every class awaiting orders. There were four immense control towers standing sentinel. Victor saw the shuttle that had been sent to take him to the flagship, it was obvious that the crew had saw him as the shuttles landing ramp began to lower.

'Shall we make a run for it?' asked Adam, gesturing to the corvette they were to take which was opposite the shuttle.

'I will do no such thing.' Chided Victor, as he angled away from the shuttle and headed towards the corvette. 'Signal Captain Lerida that we are to board and we are to leave as soon as the landing ramp is up. Get in contact with the tower have them jam the shuttles comms if the shuttle follows drones are to follow and continue to block their comms we need to buy time.'

Reluctantly Captain Lerida lowered her debarkation ramp and allowed them to board she bristled at not being given an explanation for the Directors sudden change of schedule. Several moments passed as they charged through cramped companionways making for the bridge, to Victors vexation the engines were not online the captain didn't seem in a hurry to take off.

After several more decks Victor found himself aboard the bridge of the stealth corvette, through the bridges viewscreen he could see the flagships shuttle waiting for him to board its landing ramp still down with two men at arms looking over to their corvette. No doubt they would be trying to contact the flight controllers aboard the _Inferno_ to relay that the director had boarded another vessel.

'Why aren't we in the air?' asked Victor storming onto the bridge.

'Director Sagittar.' Stated Captain Lerida, she was built like a blonde pixie, her beauty was haunting but it was rumoured she hated it as people didn't tend to take her seriously which was a mistake. 'To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?'

'Captain Lerida I have no time for pleasantries.' Stated Victor tersely, addressing the commander of the corvette. 'Why are we not leaving?'

'A vessel even a stealth ship.' Replied the captain with an unfazed expression. 'Cannot fly anywhere without a destination in mind.'

'Get off Mars head for Pluto that will do for starters.' Replied the Director in a tone that brokered no dissent. 'Get us off the ground now is that clear?'

'I appreciate the need for urgency Director.' Replied the Captain, she harrumphed at being spoken to in such a manner. 'But we are in the final stages of engine shakedown, to take off now would risk engine failure.'

'I have every faith in your fine vessel.' Countered Victor, in a tone that brokered not dissent. 'We. Leave. Now.'

Captain Lerida nodded her understanding then turned to the comms officer. 'Signal the enginarium to flash override the shakedown protocol.' She then addressed the helmsman but looked back at the Director also. 'But I won't leave without our exact destination.'

'You will leave as I've ordered you to.' Fumed Victor. 'Do it or I will have you arrested and replaced.'

'Have it your way then.' Countered the captain, with a sly grin. 'I will go kicking and screaming which will cost you time. Time that you don't have I'd wager.'

There was a hostile silence settle in the air the bridge crew tried to look elsewhere, anywhere but the confrontation. If Victor had more time he would have this uppity bitch dragged to her own cells by her hair but he didn't have time and she knew it. 'Fine scan for the transponder code of the frigate _Southsea Castle_ attached to the asteroid breaker flotilla based at the _Silent Citadel_ which is currently in orbit around Pluto. Find and take me to that frigate.'

Captain Lerida issued the directors orders then she approached her superior. 'May I enquire as to the nature of this operation?'

'No you may not.' Retorted Victor. 'It is a black operation you have your orders and you are to follow them that is enough for now.'

'I am well aware of black ops protocol.' Countered Captain Lerida. 'It is an operation that is to be kept from the public it doesn't mean that those on the operation aren't allowed to know the nature of it.'

'You will be fully briefed once we are clear of Mars.' Replied Victor, in as much of a level tone as he could manage.

'Is it to be a long mission?' asked Captain Lerida, he wasn't hiding her frustration. 'We are not provisioned for more than two weeks.'

'We will be resupplied at the systems edge, Captain.' Replied Victor. 'Now enough questions get this vessel in the air.'

Victor was nearly pitched face first to the deck as the corvette's superstructure violently shook, the deck plates squealed as the tectonic forces doled out by the ships reactor threatened to tear the ship apart. The corvette slowly left the landing pad with the sound of screaming thrusters and tortured retros. The corvette soared into the centre of the cavern heading for the exit, flying over dozens of Security Council vessels of various classes, the deck plates continued to quake. Victor could see that the flagships shuttle was making to follow them.

'What's happening?' asked Victor over the din, he tried to hide the trepidation in his voice.

Captain Lerida grinned at him. 'Someone ordered us to take off without completing engine shakedown.'

'Point taken.' Conceded Victor. 'Will we be ok?'

'I should think so.' Smiled the Captain. 'We haven't burst into flames just yet.'

Victor looked at the captain with a viperous grin, she wasn't afraid of him which was rare. 'Have the corvette run under obscurement and switch off all transponders.'

'You can't be serious?' asked Captain Lerida, incredulously. 'That's suicide.'

The director's orders were completely insane, every vessel in the atmosphere of Mars as well as in orbit of her or her moons had to display clear transponders or face immediate obliteration from any military vessel within range not to mention the Orion Battle Platforms in orbit. The protocol was clear any vessel detected without displaying a transponder tag was dealt with extreme prejudice as raiders and freedom fighters were rife, they never displayed transponders and had attacked Mars with impunity. Victor wouldn't admit it but even he was worried about giving the order for one he knew the risks but secondly it would be the ultimate irony if he was killed by the very protocol he himself had brought into being.

'We cannot be followed or tracked.' Replied Victor, he knew that she would fight him on this and time was slipping away. As much as he was loath to do it he had to appeal to her. 'Especially not by the rest of the High Council. Everything depends on not being followed. Don't fight me on this Elizabeth. Believe me when I tell you that what we are about to undertake needs to be kept from humanity, evens its leaders. I will reveal all when we get clear of Mars.'

'You had better strap yourself in then.' Stated Captain Lerida, after a long silence. She turned to address the crew. 'Fire our main engines to get us out of the tunnel. As soon as we are in the atmosphere find me a sufficient corridor to fire our void boosters.'

'Void boosters in an atmosphere?' asked Victor, the fact that it was illegal didn't bother him, it was the fact that it was suicidal more suicidal than running without transponders.

'You told me to get it done, now get strapped in.' countered the Captain, while strapping herself into her command throne. 'Until we are clear of Mars sovereign territory they will be able to track us by line of sight. Meaning they could have weapons lock and obliterate us before you could blink. The only option is to go faster than their weapons can track us as they wouldn't risk collateral damage by firing without weapons lock. Now get strapped in.'

That settled it Victor and the rest of the crew strapped themselves into acceleration couches, the corvette reached one of the six shafts that led to the surface tens of kilometres above them. The corvette entered the shaft it was now at a ninety degree angle all aboard the stealth ship sat like astronauts of the past facing the sky. Victor had a right to be wary of the captain's plan void boosters were designed to deliver a tremendous boost of speed but it meant that manoeuvring was out of the question. Therefore with the amount of traffic on Mars not being able to move accept forwards was a massive problem but being obliterated by an Orion Battle Platform was an even bigger problem.

'Shit!' exclaimed Captain Lerida, after conferring with her navigation officer. The Captain turned to Victor. 'There are vessels coming down the shaft we can't launch.'

'Just wait until they come down then we go.'

'They are three fighters from the _Inferno_.' Retorted Captain Lerida. 'The shuttle must have gotten the word out as soon as you didn't board. The navigators been in contact with the towers, there are fighters coming down every shaft we can't go anywhere.'

'Like hell we can't.' countered Victor, it stung that he had been outsmarted he was sure it would be the High Marshalls doing he never trusted the Director. 'Head up that tunnel now they'll move.'

'I draw the line at destroying friendly forces.' Deadpanned Captain Lerida. 'We will kill them and us for that matter.'

'I gave you an order.' Snapped Victor. 'They'll move.'

The helmsman looked to Victor then to his superior, with an almost imperceptible nod from her the helmsman fired the main thrusters. The effect was instantaneous there was a colossal explosion and a shockwave which shook the ship from bow to stern. The stealth ship was thrown forward hurtling towards the fighters. The flagships fighter pilots were wired into their charges through synaptic devices and it showed for their reaction times were nigh on instant. Two of the fighters came to a complete halt then hard docked with the shafts wall, the third slowed, spun around then fired its own engines heading back the way it came.

Victor felt his head snap back against his acceleration couch and his head swim with the forces being doled out, as soon as he saw the fighters on the walls they had passed them, ahead there was what could be described as a star which were the flaming engines of the fighter trying to escape. After ten seconds the stealth ship was clear of the shaft and into the atmosphere of Mars, as soon as they cleared the shaft there were explosions as they triggered mines. The navigation officer reported that there were twenty fighters inbound.

'EMP mines.' Stated Captain Lerida. 'The lord admiral really isn't happy with you. We are proof against such things but the fighters are going to be a problem they're inbound from all vectors. What happens if they intercept, surely you don't want me to fire on them?'

'Of course not.' Replied Victor, there were many things he could get away with but the death of friendly forces was not one of them. 'Just get us clear.'

The stealth ship was at thirty thousand feet above the surface of Mars and hurtling ever higher but it was still in the looming shadow of Olympus Mons, the towering eighty two thousand feet extinct volcano, the fighters were closing but they wouldn't intercept in time.

'Twelve squadrons are entering the atmosphere directly above us!' yelled the navigator in a panicked voice. 'They will have weapons lock in less than a minute, there are two frigates following close behind, they will have weapons lock in twenty seconds.'

'They won't fire.' Stated Victor, although he was struggling to speak with the force of acceleration.

No sooner had Victor spoken did proximity mines begin to explode around the stealth ship, they had been dropped by the fighter they had followed out of the shaft. The corvette was travelling too quickly to be damaged but was being buffeted by shockwaves given off by the mines as it passed.

'Power spike from the frigates!' yelled the navigation officer.

No sooner had she spoke did the sky bleach white as the frigates fired their bow mounted point lasers opened fire, laser weapons were still in their infancy but they were capable of destroying fighters and more than capable of disabling a corvette. The lasers missed the stealth ship by a hundred metres but they were close enough to make the view screen wash with static. The helmsman jinked the corvette through evasive manoeuvres Victor could see the lush surface of Mars with its green grass and blue oceans much at odds with the red planet of old.

'The frigates are powering up for another salvo!' yelled the navigation officer as the corvette surged skyward once more. 'They are launching bow mounted missile pods, the fighters are coming into weapons range and the two fighters that we passed in the shaft are now on our tail.'

'That's it.' Stated Captain Lerida. 'Bring us to a stop. Use only directional thrusters to keep us level and hovering we are giving up.'

'What are you doing woman!' exclaimed Victor. 'Get us out of here!'

'You may know a lot about security, Victor.' Replied the captain deliberately using his forename. 'But you know jack shit about naval tactics allow me to enlighten you. That first laser volley was merely a ranging shot, they have our range now.

'To avoid the next one we will need to use the void boosters but we can't get a fix on a proper corridor as there is a fleet above us trying to blow us to hell. If we try evasive manoeuvres the fighters and the missiles will obliterate us even with the use of our countermeasures, the Lord Admiral has our balls in a vice. This is the naval equivalent of checkmate.'

Captain Lerida gestured for the comms officer to hail the _Inferno_ in orbit, she didn't even give time for the Director to respond. 'This is Captain Lerida of the stealth ship _Sigma five zero_. We are coming to a halt, we will no longer try to evade, call off the attack. I repeat please call off the attack.'

The fighters continued towards them but did not fire the missiles self-destructed in the upper atmosphere and the frigates powered down their point lasers. The stealth ship came to a halt and began to hover as promised.

'Elizabeth we need to get out of here.' Stated Victor crossing the deck space between them he briefly contemplated drawing a side arm but he figured that the crew would side with her. So he decided to tell her the truth. 'Elizabeth it is the _Purest Intent._ The Arkship has returned.'

Captain Lerida's eyes popped out like they were on stalks and her mouth flopped open in shock, for the first time she was lost for words and he capitalised on it.

'It is not just that.' Added Victor. 'She has been attacked and the weapons used on her at first inspection look to be far beyond what we have the means to manufacture. Aliens Elizabeth!'

Without being told Adam closed with them and showed the captain picts from his data pad displaying the damage done to the Arkship.

'What about the High Council.' Replied Captain Lerida after the second attempt to form the words.

'You know as I do.' Replied Victor. 'That in the matters of First Contact the Security Council has jurisdiction even over the High Council, you have fought me on protocol since I boarded this vessel. Don't tell me you are going to fight me on this?'

Without hesitation the captain strapped herself into her command throne and gestured for the spooks to do the same she then addressed her navigator and helmsman. 'Find me clear corridor for the void boosters, fire them as soon as you have the solution.'

While Victor was strapping himself in the captain opened her own data pad and sent off a swift message to the USC Inferno she hoped they would understand it. With the message sent she then addressed her comms officers. 'Play for time tell them that we are bringing the Director to them.'

Before the comms officer could draft the message every person was sucked into the back of their seats as the void boosters fired. The stealth ship was violently thrown forward the forces generated threatened to tear her in two, the frigates disappeared from view as the corvette streaked passed them. Within seconds they were in orbit the monumental form of the lord admirals flagship hove into view for a moment before it too vanished from view.

The corvette left Mars sovereign territory at the speed of a comet. The force of its velocity created a bow wave of air pressure in the atmosphere so strong that it threatened to flame out the engines of the fighters sent to stop the corvette they were caught in a gale of turbulence.

Within minutes Sigma Five Zero disappeared hurtling inter outer space taking the secret of the Arkship with her.


	3. The Ladies For Turning

Aboard Lord Admiral Xavier Dante's flagship USC Inferno

Today was meant to be a joyous day of celebration but Professor David Byrd had nothing to feel joyous about for today was just another official function that confirmed that his friend and mentor was gone and never coming back. It was supposed to be a way of letting go and moving on but Professor Byrd had not moved on. The professor felt the same way since finding out about Professor Timothy Dexter's death. In truth he didn't know whether he could move on even if wanted too. His being aboard the lord admiral's flagship was just another occasion which meant that he had to be amongst people.

Since his mentors death where possible he had sequestered himself in the deepest labs beneath Pavonis Mons one of the three extinct Tharsis volcanoes on Mars. This was only the third time since his mentor's death that he had been in the company of the entire High Council the first had been Professor Dexter's funeral and the second had been the outcome of the public inquest into his death where the verdict was an assassination by terrorists.

Since the verdict he had kept himself away from the public eye, the reason for his self-enforced absentia being the manner of Professor Dexter's death and the verdict of the inquiry. The official line was that Professor Dexter decided to head for the luxury resort built into the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. It was mid-journey when his shuttle was attacked by freedom fighters with the loss of all hands.

Professor Byrd did not believe the official line for several reasons, first that not a single vessel military or civilian picked up the so called freedom fighter force. The transponder tracking software supposedly showing where the craft was attacked and destroyed was corrupted therefore the inquest could not verify this. The black boxes of the shuttle were lost to the vacuum of space.

If this wasn't damning enough the thing that rankled the most was the fact that Professor Byrd knew his mentor better than anyone. The reason for Professor Dexter's trip was preposterous the man had never took a vacation in fifty years. On the rare occasions that the High Council forced him to take a period of leave he and Professor Byrd would work on scientific principles and debate for weeks at a time, no the man never took a day off in his life.

Professor Byrd believed that he had to do as much as he could for humanity before he was shuffled from this mortal coil. With the tracker apparently corrupted and the black boxes lost Professor Byrd would not believe the reason given for his mentors death even though that meant disbelieving the Director of the Security Council. The man was a snake he could not be trusted.

Therefore after the inquest the Professor Byrd refused to attend his own inauguration ceremony and to attend any High Council meetings, he wanted to resign from office but he couldn't bring himself to as he promised his late friend and mentor he would take up the reins. With Professor Byrd unwilling to budge, the High Council declared a year of mourning in which to honour Professor Dexter's memory, only then would Professor Byrd be inducted into the ruling body of the solar system.

The real reason was to give Professor Byrd some time to come around to their way of thinking but he hadn't not in twelve months. The professor knew he wouldn't not in twelve lifetimes but a promise was a promise. So against his will and his better judgement he would take up the mantle of the fifth ruling member of the High Council.

The bridge of the _Inferno_ was monumental it was tiered with hundreds of bridge personnel sat at work stations. In the middle of the space was a suspended spherical floor plate which the most essential crew were situated but leaving a vast expanse of free space. In direct contravention to standard naval military doctrine the bridge was situated atop a command island jutting from the stern of the colossal vessel.

Not only that the entire bridge was open to the stars as the only protection from the void when the shields weren't activated was several metres thickness of armour glass. When questioned by the tactical soundness of the bridges design the designer told all naysayers that the _Inferno_ could cross through all nine circles of hell without so much as a scratch. It was with this in mind that the vessel was named with a nod not only to the admiral who would command her but also to the poet Dante Alighieri.

Professor Byrd stood on the floor plate with but standing apart from the rest of the High Council. The first member of the High Council was President Elect Helena Strauss the figurehead of the High Council she was eighty years old but didn't look a day over fifty as she had annual rejuvenate treatments to keep the aging process at bay. The ruling body of the solar system was actually split into two governing bodies the High and Low council. The High Council was the utmost authority in the sol system its members decided the direction in which humanity would head.

The Low Council included every civilian cabinet office which chose how the solar system should be run from matters of healthcare to agriculture. President Elect Strauss the leader of the Low Council and this took up much of her time. President Elect Strauss was also the only member of the High Council whom was voted into power by the civilian populous. The term of office for a President Elect was ten years with no limit to how many terms a President Elect could have in office and President Elect Strauss was half way into her second term of office.

There were no political parties anymore The Low Council was a civic body where everyone was employed and specialised in their own department and cabinet office therefore the cabinet leader of healthcare had a degree and worked in that sector. No longer were politicians needed such an antiquated system had fallen out of favour. It was only when a President Elects term of office come to an end did a campaign trail begin.

The job of the President Elect was relatively stress free as there were no nations that could go to war with each other and the civilian populous were happy with the system that had thrived for over three centuries. The only head ache the President Elect had to deal with –aside from the raiders and freedom fighters- were the occasional tabled motion from one of the big three religious factions for a new position to be created on the High Council for a religious leader.

This was out of the question as there was and always had been a total divorce of church and state in the United Solar Council, many believed that this was the most prevalent reason why the governing system worked so well as nothing in human history had proven more divisive to harmony than religion. The High Council were easily able to keep the religious factions at bay as the Night of the 13th Revolution was still in living memory when Catholic extremists had tried to assassinate the High Council of the day more than a 150 years ago.

The President Elect was in close conversation with the second member of the High Council, Lord Admiral Xavier Dante, he was in control of the USC Navy and its innumerable battle fleets at large across the sol system. Professor Byrd liked the man immensely as he was ruled by logic and pragmatism. His most able skill was to quench the fiery temper of the third member of the council. That member was High Marshall Gladstone Hadley, he was a choleric man with little time for others if they didn't meet his required standards, he didn't like President Elect Strauss for she had supported on many occasions the low councils attempts to dramatically downsize the military and navy.

The High Marshall had accused the President Elect or her staffers for the almost routine leaks about military spending and size but the only way he could prove it would be asking Victor to investigate and that wasn't about to happen as the high marshall hated the director more than the president elect. Professor Byrd did not know the High Marshall well at all as he was a hard man to get close to but he liked the man well enough most importantly because he absolutely despised Victor more than the president elect.

'He is overdue.' Announced the High Marshall, he was dressed in full dress uniform for the occasion. The High Marshall was referring to Victor whom should have come aboard by now, in respect of the professors hesitance to join the High Council the ceremony was to take place in private away from the public eye. The High Marshall had stated on more than one occasion that Victor would snub the gathering.

'I have been in contact with the shuttle I sent down.' Replied Admiral Dante. 'They have been in contact with the tower Victor is en route.'

'I will believe it when I see it.' Grumbled the High Marshall and continue to look at the verdant planet below that was Mars. 'I've always said it was a waste of time.'

'Dealing with Victor or the Security Council in general?' asked the admiral while cracking a smile.

'You know full well opinion on that snake and his nest of vipers.' Replied the High Marshall. 'But I meant terraforming Mars it looks pretty and all but what's the point the colonists could have used it as it was. Waste of time if you ask me.'

That was the High Marshall in a nutshell if something did not have a purpose or did not live up to its purpose it was useless to him. Mars was the first planet to be terraformed, the second was Venus. The terraforming of Venus had been far more challenging as a gigantic solar shade had to be created and place in orbit to lower the temperature of the planet.

'You are missing the point.' Stated Professor Byrd, the High Council were almost startled at hearing his voice as it was the first time in which he had spoken since coming aboard the flagship. 'Terraforming Mars was not a means to an end or to have it meet some form or function. Terraforming Mars was the point.

'It was to show that man could reach out to new worlds and form them into an image of his choosing to bring it to his will. When the colonists split from the United Earth Council to set off on their own the rulers of the day said it couldn't be done and that they would be the first and last colonists to leave Earth as they would die in the attempt and put off any other Earthling from making a second attempt. They terraformed Mars to prove a point and they succeeded as they created a world that Earth once was, a paradise free of pollution.'

'I've never thought of it like that.' Replied the High Marshall with a nod conceding the point. 'Although if I was one of the colonists I would have lived on the red planet as it was without changing it to prove how superior I was.'

'I am glad they weren't as bull headed as you.' Joked the Lord Admiral. 'Otherwise we would have been robbed of such a beautiful world.'

Conversation was cut off as the lord admirals adjutant Malcolm Vickers walked up to the admiral and handed him a data slate. Adjutant Vickers looked at the high marshall with trepidation then backed away a few paces as if in fear of his reaction to the contents of the data pad.

The lord admiral read the contents then handed it over to the high marshall. 'It seems you were right-'

Before Admiral Dante finished his sentence the High Marshall roared in anger and smashed the data pad onto the deck plate splintering it into dozens of pieces.

'What is going on?' asked President Elect Strauss after she jumped in surprise.

'You can't let him get away with this.' bellowed the High Marshall ignoring the President Elect.

'Just what in the hell is going on!' exclaimed the President Elect again, coming between them.

'It seems that Victor won't be joining us.' Replied Admiral Dante, before the High Marshall could round on her. 'The shuttle pilot has reported that the director has boarded a stealth corvette he looked to be in a hurry.' He turned to his adjutant who brought him the data slate. 'Contact the shuttle have them track the corvette with the escort fighter squadron it entered the atmosphere with until we can intercept.'

'We can't, my lord.' Replied Adjutant Vickers, looking at the High Marshall once more. 'Communications are being jammed we can't contact the shuttle any longer. Not just that before we lost communication the shuttle reported that the corvette turned off its transponders.'

Admiral Dante suppressed an uncharacteristic surge of anger. 'Have the escort squadron enter every tunnel into that landing cavern that stealth corvette isn't going anywhere.' He then crossed to the flight control teams responsible for plotting the movements of the Inferno's escort flotilla. 'Send in two frigates and more squadrons of fighters. If they make it out of the cavern, fire on her if necessary but do not destroy her I want Victor brought here as soon as they surrender.'

'What do you think he is up to?' asked the President Elect. 'He wouldn't be doing this just to snub Professor Byrd's inauguration would he?'

'There is no love lost between us.' Stated Professor Byrd, there was a brief chuckle form the assemblage. 'But this has nothing to do with not liking me. Something is wrong. Something has happened that is so sensitive or dangerous that the Director doesn't even trust his own High Council members why else risk instant obliteration by turning off their transponders?'

'We will find out as soon as he is apprehended.' Stated Admiral Dante.

'Admiral!' stated the menial who had delivered the first message he was running over to him. 'The corvette has made it out of the tunnel it threatened to run the fighters over.'

'Activate the hololith.' Ordered Admiral Dante through gritted teeth. 'I want a look at what's happening down there, authorise lethal force I want that bastard stopped now.'

'Lethal force?' whispered the President Elect, she couldn't quite believe what the admiral was sanctioning.

'That is the sanction for a craft not displaying transponder signals.' Replied Admiral Dante. 'Just because he is the Director of the Security Council and a member of the High Council doesn't put him above the law.'

'If anything he should be held to a higher standard.' Put in Professor Byrd, sticking the boot in.

'Too bloody right.' Grimaced the High Marshall, then with a chuckle he finished. 'The bastard will be killed by his own protocol.

At this time an image of what was happening above Mars was displayed in a three dimensional image above their heads. The stealth corvette was going through evasive manoeuvres as the frigates were nearing extreme firing range. Within seconds the frigates opened fire with their laser weapons bleaching the sky, the weapons missed but they were merely ranging shots. The fighter squadrons were closing in and the frigates released their deadly payload of missiles it was only a matter of time before the craft was destroyed with all hands.

'We have to stop this right now.' Said President Elect Strauss with sudden urgency. 'What if it got into the media. I can see the headlines now, the High Council murders the Director of the Security Council they would have a field day.'

'You mean it might damage your chances of a third term.' Glowered the High Marshall.

'You can never win with the media.' Put in Professor Byrd, he would normally show pragmatism but he sincerely wished Victor would be blown to hell. It would be a shame about the crew but they were willingly flouting the law. 'If he is allowed to escape and it made it into the public domain they would cry nepotism.'

'There won't be any murdering.' Said Admiral Dante calmly. 'No one is going to die.'

'How can you be so sure?' asked President Elect Strauss she didn't look convinced.

'The captain of the stealth ship will surrender.' Replied the admiral. 'They are navy educated once the commander realises I've got their balls in a vice they will surrender, besides they are unlikely to want to get Victor killed.'

'Admiral!' exclaimed Adjutant Vickers. 'We are getting a message from the corvette!'

'Play it.' Commanded the admiral.

'This is Captain Lerida of the stealth corvette _Sigma five zero_. We are coming to a halt, we will no longer try to evade, call off the attack. I repeat please call off the attack.'

Admiral Dante ordered a flash override to call off the attack and the corvette came to a halt as promised, it looked like it was all over.

'Well she hasn't got any balls to go in a vice.' Grumbled the High Marshall half joking.

'Captain Lerida has bigger balls than every man on this flagship combined.' Replied Admiral Dante with a wide grin. 'I have called off the attack as I know that I have an ally in her.'

'Never trust a spook.' Argued the High Marshall.

'Never have truer words been spoken.' Replied the admiral. 'But Captain Elizabeth Lerida is no spook she hates Victor with a passion she has sent me no fewer than six hundred appeals suing for reassignment out of the Security Council.'

'Then why haven't you granted her request?' asked the President Elect.

'Because she pisses off Victor.' Replied the admiral with another grin. 'She is a constant thorn in his side. Not just that. I have only a few captains in the Security Council whom I can trust I wasn't about to lose one by granting her request. I am pleased she is aboard as she would never be swayed by him.'

In direct mockery of Admiral Dante's commentary the corvette lit its void boosters inside the atmosphere of Mars breaking yet another law of the sovereign territory. No sooner had the boosters flare into life did the stealth ship disappear from view leaving a fiery contrail in its wake.

'It looks like the lady was for turning after all.' Said President Elect Strauss, as they watched the hololith operators try in vain to track the corvettes trajectory.

'No never.' Replied Admiral Dante. 'She has a strong moral compass whatever Victor knows forced her hand to follow his order. The only way he would have gotten her to budge an inch is if he appealed to her sense of logic. I know my personnel there is something we are missing.'

'Except she isn't yours.' Countered the president elect. 'She is as the High Marshall says she is a spook.'

'She is navy through and through.' Said the admiral tersely, although he had a sinking feeling. The Admiral then turned to his bridge crew. 'I want a fix on their heading and a list of possible locations they might be travelling to.'

There was a silence settle on the High Council, no one pointed out that the captain's first manoeuvre would most likely be a random one to throw off any pursuers. No one said it as there was no need to, without transponders the stealth corvette could be anywhere and whatever Victor was up to they might never find out.

'Sir we have a message.' Shouted Adjutant Vickers running over to him with a data pad. 'It's from Captain Lerida, it was sent just before she fired her void boosters.'

Admiral Dante took the data pad and was surrounded by members of the High Council, it was a curious message as it only contained what were clearly coordinates for somewhere in the solar system. Then there was series of numbers that seemed to be lost on them as no one spoke for a long moment.

'Those coordinates are for the systems edge sure enough.' Stated Admiral Dante, his decades as a veteran spacer saw the truth of them straight away. 'The numbers after the coordinates are lost on me I am afraid.'

'The systems edge.' Stated the High Marshall. 'What could possibly be out there for him to risk being obliterated?'

'I think we might rue the answer to that question.' Replied Professor Byrd, his face darkening he looked very worried. 'I know what the numbers are they are a reference source from the USC Navy Procedure Manual.'

'Of course.' Said Admiral Dante sheepishly. 'I will find out which procedure it is immediately.'

'That won't be necessary lord admiral as I already know what it is as I am on this oversight committee.' Continued Professor Byrd he looked to be shaking. 'It is the USC Naval Procedure for Conducting First Contact.'


	4. Where Loyalties Lie

Aboard the asteroid breaker frigate Southsea Castle tailing the Arkship The Purest Intent

The situation was bad enough for Captain Everson but it was about to get a whole lot more complicated. Since sending his report to the Security Council he and his XO Jeanette Peterson had retired to his stateroom to discuss the situation away from the crew. The reappearance of the Arkship was stressful enough for them as it was, without them learning of the schism at the highest echelons of government.

Captain Everson didn't know what he was going to do as he had been given conflicting orders. A message was sent from a representative of the Director of the Security Council whom made it perfectly clear to him to remember protocol and that from here on in this matter was to be treated with the utmost secrecy and that his loyalty belonged to them for the duration of this operation.

The order from the Security Council was to follow the Arkship and run under communications silence speaking to no one especially United Solar Council personnel. There was the promise of great rewards if he aided them in this endeavour they promised not to keep him marooned at the systems edge that there was a position of great standing waiting for him. They had obviously they had hacked into his personnel files that didn't surprise him they were into everything.

Soon after receiving the message from the operative the Lord Admiral himself sent Captain Everson a message. Lord Admiral Dante praised the Captain for following protocol as was right and that he appreciated the difficult situation he was in. The Lord Admiral told Captain Everson that they were en route and that he recommended that the captain should offer every assistance to the Director but he asked that he not let to the spooks that they were coming. Captain Everson didn't know how to respond to either message so he sent an electronic pinged acknowledgement to both to buy himself some time to think.

On the one hand Director Victor Sagittar a man who was universally despised and feared but not in command of the captain had ordered him to break allegiance with the USC Navy with everything he held dear. On the other hand his ultimate superior in the naval chain of command hadn't ordered him to do a damn thing, in fact he had recommended that he offer all help to the Director. The Admiral hadn't even ordered him not to tell the Director that they were coming he only asked that he didn't. It seemed that in the next few hours he had to choose where his loyalties lay to the USC or to himself.

It struck Captain Everson as being odd that the Lord Admiral had not mentioned the _Purest Intent_ it was as if he didn't know that she had returned. There again it would also stand to reason that the Director had kept the information to himself. Perhaps the admirals own intelligence network had gleaned tit bits of information or the admiral was playing his cards close to his chest as he knew the Security Council would be intercepting any messages sent to and from their frigate. Captain Everson's head swam he wanted to be at the forefront of things but he never imagined himself being caught up in High Council business a part of him wished that the Arkship had turned out to be an asteroid after all.

Mostly because of how the High Council were acting but more so after they scanned the Arkship with their high gain gear. Their scanners were meant for mapping out the makeup of asteroids they would never get an accurate reading of the _Purest Intent_ but they did find several large cavities inside her, three of the largest are amidships they were a cause for concern as they could be cavities created from ordnance being cooked off. That seemed to be an explanation as the largest of the cavities had been holed through.

In a hollow adjacent to the largest cavity was a large mass nearly a kilometre in length at first inspection they guessed it was a collection of debris from the ordnance cooking off, that was until the results of the scans were inspected. Most of the elements in the makeup of the mass were as to be expected to be used in the construction of a vessel however many more were not known to the periodic table, meaning they were unknown to man.

There was a possible explanation that it was from the weapons fire that holed the vessel through several times but the mass had yet more unknown elements. Captain Everson tried not to fret too much there was a reasonable explanation after all the Arkship had a sizeable scientific component they may have taken samples from rogue asteroids or exoplanets, they were after all in the interstellar medium who knows what was out there. Neither the captain to his XO said out loud what else the mass could be it remained the elephant in the room.

For the last hour he and Jeannette had been drinking one of the finest scotches in the solar system a bottle of Mortlach. It had been a gift from his father when he graduated from the academy up to now nothing of great note had happened that justified opening it. Even now it was not in celebration he just needed something to take the edge off his nerves, he would have tried to solve his Rubik's cube but his XO had put an end to that.

'I can't believe that there is a schism like this in the High Council.' Stated Jeanette after taking a sip of her scotch.

'I'm not.' Replied Captain Everson, before draining the last of his scotch. 'They are just people after all like you and me, hell I have moped around for years as I felt like I had been abandoned at the arse end of nowhere.' Jeanette sniggered at his quip. 'The High Council members are responsible for every single human being in the solar system that's one hell of a gig. It would have been bad enough if they were in charge of one country or one planet but the entire solar system that's got to take some toll on you. Especially since each council members role and the part of civilisation they were responsible for put them in direct conflict with the other members.

'Then there are the council members themselves President Elect Strauss has to worry about how she performs and has to maintain her public image as she has to campaign to keep her position of power therefore any great matters of import she second guesses herself and doesn't like to make decisions without various oversight committees.

'The High Marshall is a brutal man but that's because he is a product of the military he is a career soldier he has no time for bullshit so naturally that puts in into conflict with the president elect he hates her as he has no time while she preens her public image. Then the high marshall hates the director even more than the president elect as he cloaks himself in secrecy and refuses to disclose anything to anyone. The only sane one of the bunch is the lord admiral but his role is to command the navy and limit the movements of criminals and freedom fighters but he has had to spend the last twelve months keeping the President Elect, the Director and the High Marshall from killing each other.

'The fifth council member is to bring balance between competing humours and agendas but that role has been vacant since the passing of Professor Timothy Dexter. I know the official line is that there is a year of mourning in the late professor's honour, but I don't buy it. In my opinion Professor Byrd doesn't want to take on the role even though he has been preparing for it for decades.

'Something is wrong or something has happened that has made him lose trust or commitment. Until Professor Byrd comes back into the fold the High Council will be unbalanced and right here right now we need them all singing from the same hymn sheet. If aliens really did do that to the _Purest Intent_ then we need them to be balanced and make the right decisions.'

'I've misjudged you.' Stated Jeanette after a long silence. 'I think the admiralty has too by sending you out here.'

'No Jeanette.' Countered the captain. 'You had me pegged from the beginning I have been a liability since I took command of the _Southsea Castle._ You have run the crew brilliantly it took the reappearance of the Arkship to wake me up to how much of an arsehole I have been.'

A machine call sounded on the intercom on the captain's desk, they both jumped as they were startled so much so Captain Everson fell from his chair to the laughter of his XO. The captain got up and answered the call. 'This is Everson.'

'Captain Everson.' Said the comms officer. 'I thought I should give you a heads up we have vessels inbound, we have a lot of vessels inbound.'

The captain and his XO shared an uneasy glance before he responded. 'Do we know whose they are?'

'They are too far out for identification.' Replied comms officer. 'They just came into extreme detection range we are only picking up their electronic signatures.'

'We will be right out.' Answered the captain before hanging up, he and his XO patted themselves down before heading back for the bridge.

'Who's your money on?' whispered Jeanette as they headed back to the bridge.

'I have no idea.' Replied shrugged the captain. 'I just hope whoever they are that they don't make any rash decisions.'

The captain and his XO entered the bridge he could see that they looked worried, even more than before which then began to worry Captain Everson. The captain looked to his navigation officers who looked the most worried on the bridge. 'What is it?'

'It's the Shadow Admiral.' Said the lead navigation officer.

'You have spoken to her?' asked Captain Everson, he suddenly felt weak he would have preferred if the Director was here, hell he would have rather took an asteroid to the face.

'No captain.'

'Then how do you know it is her?' cut in Jeanette.

The navigator pointed directly ahead of him and the view of the Arkship changed to a view of another behemoth. 'Because of that.'

The metal monster was surrounding by eleven Security Council vessels from corvettes to cruisers and as was customary they were matte black, except for the beast in their midst. It was a thirty kilometre long slab sided killer. It was gunmetal grey, scarred, scorched and pitted by battle damage as craggy and unyielding as the woman who commanded her. It was the _Hood_ the flagship of Shadow Admiral Irene Hurley.

The Security Council had its own military and naval structure as well as forces although this was officially denied in the public domain but before long many in the military would come across them. The shadow admiral was commander in chief of both spook navy and military she was so scary that those who came across her would rather deal with Victor.

Captain Everson had never been in the presence of the shadow admiral and he waited with baited breath to see what she had to say, it seemed that he didn't have to wait long. They weren't hailed nor was a message sent requesting an audience. One second the bridge crew were looking at the Hood then the next second they were looking at the craggy and heavily wrinkled face of Shadow Admiral Hurley. Many of the crew jumped in shock not expecting it to happen, Captain Everson didn't know what was better looking the admiral or her ship.

'Daniel.' Said the shadow admiral, while she put a cigarette in her mouth then lit it. 'It is quite a find you have here.'

'That it is.' Replied Captain Everson, he decided not to be cowed by her even though inside he was shaking, he gestured to her cigarette. 'You know those are bad for you?'

The shadow admiral took a long drag on the cigarette then exhaled. 'So is not following procedure, you've been talking to the admiral haven't you boy?'

'That is the Lord Admiral.' Replied Captain Everson tersely. Even though he was scared stiff of her he would not allow her to speak of his supreme commander in such a manner, he had made his choice in regards to loyalty. 'He is commander in chief of the navy and a member of the High Council he should be spoken of with respect he deserves that much. I could say that he sent me only one communique and that I've only replied with a single electronic ping but you know that already don't you?'

'Then how does the "lord admiral" know where you are?' Asked the shadow admiral using her fingers to quote the admirals official title.

Captain Everson shrugged. 'I used the secure line as was protocol and reported to the Directors Office. I nor any of my crew have sent a communique save for the acknowledgement pings, two of them one to the Director and one to the Lord Admiral. If you are looking for a leak you are going to have to look closer to home. By now you've been through our databanks and know what I am telling you is the truth.'

There was a pause in the air no one spoke on the bridge of the _Southsea Castle,_ Captain Everson just stood there he was starting to regret talking down to the most dangerous woman in the solar system. For thirty seconds she just looked at him taking four draws on her cigarette, it was like she was peering into his soul.

'You're a real piece of work, Captain Everson.' Stated the shadow admiral. 'Now tell me what you've been doing out here?'

Captain Everson shrugged. 'We have been tailing her since the message was sent, aside from scanning her-'

'You've done what!' screamed the shadow admiral, her eyes wide with shock then anger. 'You stupid son of a bitch do you know what might have attacked her?'

'Of course I do.' Countered the captain. 'It is likely that extraterrestrials attacked the Purest Intent.'

'So you just go blithering in with your scanners!' roared the shadow admiral. 'If it is aliens that attacked the Arkship what if the aliens aren't in cryo and their protocol is to wake them up if they're scanned. Or if there is something rigged in there to come online if someone scans it like a bomb? What if they use a language or means of communication similar to the frequency of your scanners, huh? You could have just told them to go to hell or declared war upon them!'

Captain Everson's head darted back like he had just been punched, the shadow admiral was on the money he hadn't thought of it like that. 'It had not occurred to me, shadow admiral.'

'No shit.' Replied the shadow admiral. 'Was there any change in the Arkship when the scans took place?'

Captain Everson shook his head he would keep as much information as he could to himself. 'No she was dead in space before, during and after the scans.'

Shadow Admiral Hurley looked set to reply but she looked of screen for a moment as if she was being fed instructions or information, he then turned back to the view screen. 'Captain Everson remember you are under Security Council jurisdiction you speak to no one.'

With that the view screen went to static then back to the view of the Hood, it was coming about facing away from the Arkship as were the rest of the fleet. They were bringing their weapons online, suddenly a shimmering haze surrounded the ships as their shields were brought online.

'What's going on?' asked Captain Everson looking to his bridge crew for answers.

'We have another vessel inbound, sir.' Answered the navigator.

'Friendlies?' asked the captain, he could bring himself to ask if they were aliens.

'There is one vessel inbound a corvette it's decelerating from quarter light speed it's not displaying a transponder tag.' Replied the navigator, he was looking at his work station intently. 'Wait there are more contacts inbound dozens of them they read as USC Navy they are powering up their weapons too.'

'Give me a tactical map.' Ordered the captain.

At his order a three dimensional image appeared in front of them it displayed their position to the rear of the Arkship, with the Security Council forces along with the phantom corvette coming about to meet the onrushing USC forces. Never in his worst nightmares did he think he would see friendly forces ready to fire upon one another. Worse still it was the High Council members that were in control of the USC navy vessels in one salvo humanities entire leadership could be wiped out right when they were needed the most.

'This is insane.' Whispered Jeanette.

'It's a goddamned nightmare.' Said Captain Everson.

'What if this is the first strategy in an alien invasion.' Put in Jeanette, she was shaking. 'To get our leadership fighting amongst themselves before they strike and invade.'

'Well its bloody well working isn't it.' Said the captain. 'Look at them they are about to destroy each other.'

On the tactical hololith both fleets were in attack formations neither side had fired but that meant nothing they were merely waiting for optimal firing range.

'I've never felt so powerless in my entire life.' Said Jeanette, taking a sidelong look at her captain. 'Being on the side line not able to intercede.'

'We have to do something we can't just sit here.' Captain Everson looked to the Arkship then to the forces rushing headlong at each other. 'I have something but it's stupid.'

'It can't be worse than what they're doing.' Replied Jeanette. 'What you got?'

Captain Everson smiled before speaking. 'Have two of our drop ships loaded with provisions for two months as well as a tactical fusion warhead a piece. Have them dock here.' Gesturing to the hololith. 'And here. Unpack every party popper we have and get our engineers to deploy them along the starboard and portside prow, I think we are going to need them.'

'The party poppers?' Replied the XO as a wave of recognition hit her. 'I like it the Director will be furious.'

'That will be an added benefit.' Quipped the captain while grinning. 'Get it done quickly with the security council moving to intercept the navy they should be too preoccupied to see what we're doing until it is too late, this will be our ace in the hole. If the High Council are going to fight like children then I am going to have to step in.'

Jeanette returned the grin as the light of understanding shone in her eyes. 'They have seriously underestimated you.'


	5. Withdraw or Die

Aboard Stealth Corvette Sigma Five Zero closing on the Arkship's location

To say the atmosphere aboard the stealth corvette Sigma Five Zero was tense would be an understatement, Captain Lerida and Victor had been at each other's throats for most of the voyage. The key reason being how long it was taking them to reach the Southsea Castle, to ensure that they protect their secrecy Captain Lerida had insisted on two random jumps to throw off any possibility of being tracked.

Victor was furious but relented as he too was keen on keeping the reappearance of the Purest Intent a secret, but in reality Captain Lerida was playing for time she hoped that the High Council would work out her message quickly. Captain Lerida reassured herself that they would have as Professor Byrd was on this very oversight committee, even though he was grieving he was a smart man he would come through.

Outwardly the captain's decision to send a message may have seemed foolhardy and that she would have been caught but she was the captain of a spook vessel with access to the finest software known to man designed so it could not be tracked by anyone even a Security Council vessel. The captain still felt guilty about breaking her promise to surrender but she knew she had to do it there had been no other way.

Despite what Victor may think it wasn't his whit or his appealing to her logical side, it was the fact that she knew that he would have despatched the shadow admiral before boarding her corvette. If she had of surrendered to the High Council it would have been a waste of time interrogating Victor while the shadow admiral had free reign to deal with the Purest Intent. Victor was king spook he would never have been broken not even by the High Marshall himself.

This was the only workable option to follow Victors orders and buy some time for the High Council to catch up, after that it was out of her hands. As soon as the director realised that she had betrayed him he would at the very least revoke her commission and at worst arrest her or even perform a summary execution. It if was the latter the director would not find the captain wanting, she had already unlocked the safe in her command throne containing her sidearm.

To even think about raising a weapon to a High Council member, even the widely despised Victor Sagittar felt abhorrent but she could not and would not allow him to bury the Arkship. If what he had told her was true and that aliens did attack the Purest Intent then it had to be investigated by all branches of the military as well as the High Council. If Victor got his way the Arkship would never see the light of day, he was perfectly capable of hiding a twenty six kilometre long vessel the Security Council was able to do anything.

Captain Lerida knew this to be a fact as the most audacious stunt they were ever able to pull off occurred when humanity made its first foray to colonise the solar system. The Security Council managed to lay claim to the moon and make it their sovereign territory. They claimed it was integral for the integration of humanity as the United Earth Council was still a new concept and had many detractors, therefore every dirty secret from each country, every dossier and scrap of paper was taken from the surface of the Earth and deposited in facilities buried deep in the moons crust.

As much as Captain Lerida was loath to admit it she was in favour of the decision as after all nearly every former country of old Earth had been at war or loggerheads with one another at least once in their histories. Despite being under one government for the first time in their species history, even today people were extremely aware of their racial heritage and equally aware of inherited racial prejudices. The captain and many of her peers firmly believed that religion fed this as they still pointed out the difference between them.

So having a place to store the most sensitive information known to man and keep it from humanity was a logical idea as not doing it and having the information in the public domain could destabilise the status quo and the current government model. Although every time she thought about the moon she wondered why the Security Council of the day did not just fire the data and hard copies into the sun and destroy it once and for all. After spending time in the Security Council and finding out what they were capable of, the conspiracy theorist in her told her that there was something else on the moon that had to be kept secret but was too valuable to allow it to be destroyed, lost or even become public knowledge.

All thoughts of conspiracies were shelved as her helmsman called out that they were decelerating rapidly from one quarter light speed, she tasked her navigator to slave as much power as they could afford to their sensors to get a picture of what they were heading into. There were two extremely large vessels as well as twelve others of varying classes to her chagrin they registered as twelve Security Council vessels, one unknown vessel and the _Southsea Castle_ which she had been told to find. Captain Lerida ordered for a hololithic tactical projection to display the local area around the Arkship.

'Did you think they would be someone else?' asked Victor, taking a sidelong look at the captain.

'I am just pleased that we have not been tracked.' Replied Captain Lerida, trying to hide her irritation. 'You know as well as I do that we passed through hundreds of sensor outposts and surveillance nets, they could have picked up on our profile and followed us. Not too many vessels save for maintenance ships and resupply tankers no one else heads to the systems edge.'

'We have slipped their notice.' Replied Victor, as much as he was loath to admit it he had to hand it to her he knew what she was saying to be true. 'It seems that your random jumps threw off any tails.'

'I did as you ordered.' Replied Captain Lerida, tersely she wasn't about to establish a good working relationship with the man. 'Nothing more.'

Sigma Five Zero bled off much of its speed and now came into visual range of the vessels, well those that could be seen, the Security Council vessels being matte black only their transponder tags could be seen at this range. The Hood was a fearsome beast but it was not what fixed her attention. Captain Lerida got up from her command throne she passed her bridge officers and close with the view screen itself. The Purest Intent was there right in front of her, the vessel that had flung itself from the solar system over one hundred fifty years ago was back here and they had to find out what had happened to her.

'She is quite a sight.' Said Victor, closing to stand beside her.

'That is something we can agree on.' Replied the captain, as she reached out and touched the image of the Arkship. 'She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life, I wonder what happened to her.'

'That is what we are here to find out.' Replied Victor, he looked at her square on. 'We _will_ find out but it will remain in the strictest of confidence.'

The conversation was cut off as Victors attention was stolen his vessels including the Hood lit their drives and were coming about, the director scowled at the captain then crossed to her comms officer. 'You there patch me through to the Hood.'

The comms officer took a sidelong glance to her superior but she was shot down by Victor.

'Don't look at her patch me through to the Hood now!'

The comms officer blanched in fear then typed furious commands into her console then she gave the go ahead. 'You are patched in voice only.'

'Irene.' Said Victor speaking into the air looking around the bridge.

'Victor.' Replied a haggard voice. 'It seems we are discovered we have USC Navy inbound, the Inferno is at her centre it seems the High Council has come evidently someone has been talking.'

'The captain of the Southsea Castle?' asked Victor, even though he was glowering at Captain Lerida whom had as casually as possible made her way to her command throne.

'Negative we've been through the frigates databanks with a fine tooth comb.' Countered the shadow admiral. 'That Captain Everson is an uppity prick but he is clean. I would hazard a guess that a message was sent by a source whom we can't track.'

'Bring your weapons online and raise shields.' Ordered Victor, while still staring at Captain Lerida. 'See if we can scare them off to buy time. We cannot lose control of the Arkship while they're concentrated on our vessels, send in a small stealth team into the damage at her bow tell them to lie in wait and await further orders.'

'Affirmative.' Replied the shadow admiral then cut the link.

Victor crossed the distance between him and Captain Lerida, he signalled for Rebecca and Adam to draw their weapons. 'You warned them didn't you? You broke protocol so much for your code of ethics.'

'I am the only one who followed the bloody protocol.' Hissed Captain Lerida. 'Yes the Security Council would take the lead on matters of First Contact but all agencies especially the High Council would be informed and form a critical response group. So yes I told them what was out here as they have a right to know, they have a right to be here.'

'You have been a constant thorn in my side but this is the last straw.' Victor took a sidelong glance at his operatives Rebecca and Adam. 'Have her removed from command.'

Rebecca and Adam moved to flank the captain but she took her sidearm from her command throne and threw herself at Victor. Before Victors operatives could so much as draw a bead on her the captain had grabbed the director by the scruff of his neck and pointed her pistol at his temple she snarled at them. 'Back off!'

Reluctantly the operatives took several steps back but still trained their weapons on Captain Lerida, Victor seemed completely unfazed by his sudden predicament. 'Put down the weapon this is a very bad idea it is only going to end one way for you.'

'You shut up.' Bellowed Captain Lerida, she cracked the butt of her pistol off the top of the directors for good measure. 'This isn't a good idea and threatening a fleet action with the USC Navy is a good idea is? I am going to hail the shadow admiral and you're going to order her to withdraw you got it?'

'I am not about to do that.' Replied Victor. 'Besides even if I did the shadow admiral wouldn't listen she knows what's at stake here. She is more likely to destroy your vessel with me on it than allow the truth to be known outside the Security Council so you might as well shoot me.'

'Look at what you are about to do!' exclaimed the captain. 'You are about to go toe to toe with the USC Navy and for what? To keep what happened to the Arkship from the High Council? They are our leaders, you are our leader you should be of one mind for the good of humanity, this isn't some petty consideration for you to fall out over. This is potentially the greatest discovery and potentially the gravest threat humanity could face we need you to stand as one and not be at each other's throats.'

'You have made your position clear.' Stated Victor as blood caused by his head wound trickled down his face. 'Now allow me to clearly state my position. I have took this path as the High Council cannot be trusted, the President Elect is a politician followed by gaggles of civilians if she finds out that aliens attacked the Arkship it will be in the public domain quicker than you could say leak. No way do those bastards get near the Purest Intent.'

Captain Lerida was between a rock and a hard place, she knew Victor wouldn't budge he would rather die than allow the truth to get out, the same went for the shadow admiral, her loyalty to the director was absolute. If she could not dissuade the Security Council from open conflict her only chance lay with the High Council, the USC fleet had numerical advantage and could win the engagement but she knew that the damage done to morale would be far reaching she had to put a stop to this.

'Patch me through to the Inferno.' Ordered Captain Lerida, she looked to the hololith the two fleets were closing fast both with weapons armed and shields activated conflict was only moments away. The viewscreen changed from the view of the cosmos to the chaotic bridge of the lord admiral's flagship. 'I am addressing the High Council this is Captain Elizabeth Lerida of the stealth corvette Sigma Five Zero, I have Director Victor Sagittar under arrest.'

Captain Lerida could see the High Council members rush forward thankfully it looked like the lord admiral was taking charge as she feared that the high marshal would have opened fire by now.

'Victor what the hell are you playing at?' asked the lord admiral. 'Order your forces to power down their weapons and to withdraw immediately.'

Victor said nothing he just stared at them for a long moment with a look of utter contempt.

'Victor?' repeated the lord admiral.

'Lord Admiral Dante I beseech you to withdraw.' Cut in Captain Lerida as it became obvious that the director wasn't going to reply. 'The director made it clear to me that he would rather see you all die here today than allow you to learn the truth of what happened to the Arkship.'

The high marshall looked incandescent as if he was ready to explode but the lord admiral fended him off. 'Victor you are outgunned three to one and outclassed as most of your forces are frigates and corvettes stand down now. Stand down now are you will be getting a lot of good men and women killed.'

Victor smiled as he saw menials running up to the lord admiral with data slates in hand, he looked to the hololith and saw what the lord admiral was being shown. There were vessels powering up to the lord admirals flanks and to the rear of their position. They appeared as singles then there was twenty then thirty they were thousands of kilometres out but closing fast. These were not corvettes and frigates they were carriers and battleships, they were also not USC Navy. They were Security Council vessels and with one swift move the shadow admiral had tipped the balance of the potential engagement firmly in their favour.

'Now it is you who is outgunned.' Smirked Victor, before Captain Lerida hit him again with her pistol, he winced in pain. 'I will accept your surrender if you do so immediately after that I can't guarantee your safety.'

Instead of looking rattled the lord admiral seemed to take on a menacing aspect his normally calm exterior melting away, he said through gritted his teeth. 'We will not surrender Victor, we will get to the truth. You may have numerical superiority now but you have played your trap too late, we only have to kill you and the shadow admiral then the rest will fall into line. Stand. Down. Now.'

'The truth is all we have.' Answered Victor. 'But it cannot be bandied about frivolously if I let you live and you learn the truth it will be in this evenings news bulletins.'

'We wouldn't leak anything.' Countered the lord admiral, his face darkening he looked hurt. 'We are in this together whatever befouled the Arkship will be kept a matter of the strictest confidence.'

'The strictest of confidence?' asked Victor rhetorically, he shot him a wicked look. 'You have the President Elect in your company, her and her staff have been leaking the amount of defence spending for the last twenty six months to justify the Low Councils demands about downsizing the size of the military. Her or her staffers will leak the information, she leaked spending to justify her position imagine what she will do with this to cement her position in history.

'It will be out there and it will scare the living piss out of every person in the solar system it will change the consciousness of our entire civilisation. There will be religious wars far worse than those in the aftermath of the Night of the 13th Revolution as once faithful adherents to their religions will question their place in the cosmos for they have been lied to for millennia.

'Not just that for now and all time humanity will look to the systems edge and quake with fear. They will wake up each morning thinking will today be the day that the aliens come and do the same thing they did to the _Purest Intent._ I would rather assassinate the entire High Council out here where no one can see than let the entire population of the solar system find out what befouled the Arkship or even learn of its reappearance. I am not about to let that happen. Withdraw or die.'

'Then we choose to die.' Replied Admiral Dante.

With that the lord admiral cut the link between it and Sigma Five Zero, the admiral did not peel off some of his forces to deal with the new threat to their rear, he kept his forces surging towards the Security Council forces to their fore. The lord admiral didn't seem to be bluffing he meant what he said that he intended on killing the director and the shadow admiral.

Victor realised that the lord admiral was right the shadow admiral had sprung her trap too late as the USC fleet had accelerated as soon as the spook fleet had shown themselves. The lord admiral's fleet would hit their lines before their reinforcements could intervene. Both fleets powered up their weapons and prepared to attack one another. Captain Lerida felt despair, here she was with a gun to the directors head while two supposedly friendly forces were about to engage each other in the largest fleet action in over a century. She didn't know how things could get any worse. That was until her navigator began to shout.

'Captain we are getting a new energy signature!' screamed the navigation officer.

'Who is it?' asked Captain Lerida, she hoped against hope that it was not more Security Council vessels and that the lord admiral had seen this coming and had deployed more vessels. 'Theirs or ours?'

It took the navigator three attempts to form the words. 'Neither. It's neither the USC Navy nor the Security Council. It's the Purest Intent she is powering up.'


	6. The Truth Is All We Have

Aboard the USC Inferno closing on coordinates provided by Captain Lerida

The voyage from Mars had been a whirlwind of meetings, rumour, conjecture and paranoia. High Marshall Hadley believed that Captain Lerida's cryptic message was merely a ploy to lure the entire High Council to the systems edge while Victor enacted his schemes without interference. Lord Admiral Dante disagreed he argued that she already had the jump on them when they called off their attack, there was no need for her to send a message at all. Whether it was a ruse or not they had little choice but to dance to the captains tune and head for the systems edge.

But it wasn't as simple as plotting a course and heading for the Southsea Castle. They had to treat the captain's short but confusing message as fact and therefore plan accordingly, they didn't know whether to treat the message as a civilian matter or a military one. In the end the High Marshall won through arguing that if there was no threat Victor wouldn't have risked being obliterated as he tried to flee Mars.

The lord admiral and high marshall took four vessels from the Mars Sovereign Fleet then plotted a zig zag course to the frigates location, they did this so they would not arouse suspicion and feed military vessels from various fleet sectors for the same reason of not raising eyebrows. They had accumulated thirty five vessels the majority were USC Navy, some were troop carriers from the military, they brought with them two regiments of soldiers.

They had even brought two squadrons of combat walkers as a heavy weight response, as the high marshall put it they didn't want to be caught with their trousers down. Most of the voyage Professor Byrd and Admiral Dante had to keep the high marshall and president elect from each other as they believed that the high marshall would beat the president elect to death if left to his own devices.

The reason being that President Elect Strauss insisted on alerting the low council, convening oversight committees, recruiting special advisors which would surely lead to a leak. The president elect had been outvoted but still she bleated on which set off the high marshall every time she did. The high marshall went so far as to call her motives entirely self-serving for if it became a matter of public historical record that during her tenure as president the High Council found intelligent life from outside the solar system she would surely win a third term at the very least not to mention lining her nest post presidency with book contracts and public speaking.

They had debated at great length of what their response should be if there were extra-terrestrials at their systems doorstep. The First Contact Protocol was largely vague and wholly hypothetical, the first step was to make "peaceable contact" but how would one accomplish such a thing? Aside from being another race and not knowing the same language, there were a myriad of barriers to foresee and overcome. They might not have a language at all.

They may have no eyes to see or vocal chords to speak. They could use body language or body heat or scent to communicate or even colours like chameleons. They may use infrared to see or shriek subsonic tones to speak to one another. An alien could be a giant insect or a gas cloud therefore any comprehensive protocol on how to make First Contact was laughable.

The only solid suggestion was mathematics as it was believed to be a universal language. Given enough time Professor Byrd would have liked to at least retrofit hololith projectors to the outside of several ships for a visual attempt at contact. As the professor reasoned logically that in order to navigate the cosmos an alien would have to be able to see using some kind of light spectrum.

As ever the president elect questioned the need for the sizeable military component they had with them. President Strauss reasoned that if Victor only saw it fit to take only a single stealth corvette to the systems edge therefore there was no need for a heavyweight response as if there was a danger he would have took more ships.

Before the high marshall could lambast the president elect the lord admiral administered a gentler rebuke. Lord Admiral Dante reasoned that the president elects approach was a naïve one, he reasoned that Victor would never have took ships from Mars as it would have raised too many eyebrows even if he had more time. The lord admiral reasoned that he would have unleashed the shadow admiral, that notion alone silenced the president elect for the moment at least as Shadow Admiral Hurley was universally feared.

As they approached their destination the atmosphere on the bridge became tense they were completely unprepared for whatever they were headed into. The rulers of the solar system were in the dark and had no contingency other than blundering to the coordinates and reacting to what they found there. Their helmsman called out that they were coming into sensor range and extreme visual range.

For this moment the High Council members gathered in close proximity for the first time since they watched Sigma Five Zero leap out of the atmosphere of Mars. They stood in complete silence glancing between the blackness of space through the giant viewscreen and the colossal hololith projector above their heads, as they closed with coordinates over a dozen sensor returns appeared. Without being ordered a menial approached to deliver a sensor report.

'My Lord.' Stated the menial, gesturing to the hololith above his head. 'There are fifteen vessels out there, twelve of them are Security Council there is a small vessel rushing to meet them it isn't displaying transponders we hazard a guess that it is Sigma Five Zero it looks to just be arriving now. The largest of the vessels is the Hood, the second largest vessel which also isn't displaying any transponders we don't have any idea what kind of vessel it is not even its class. We can't get a match for profile or drive signature. It also doesn't look to even be powered up.'

'The ship that's just arriving surely it can't be Sigma Five Zero.' Said the high marshall before the lord admiral could respond. 'Victor had the jump on us he's had hours of lead time. If it is him then where the hells he been?'

'Randomised jumps.' Put in Admiral Dante. 'Standard naval protocol to throw off tails but I think she did it to buy us time to catch up.'

'You still think she is on our side?' grumbled the high marshall.

'As sure as I can be of anything.' Replied the admiral with a shrug, he then turned to the menial. 'There are no other signatures out there, none that could be extra-terrestrial?'

The menial shook his head. 'We can't be sure my lord, the only thing of interest is the large vessel there again it could just be a bulk tanker packed to the gills with supplies.'

'Let us be the judge of that.' Glowered the high marshall. 'I want a closer look at this ship.'

It was this moment that the lord admiral was pleased to be aboard his beloved flagship as she had one of the most powerful and advanced telescopic systems in the solar system, the Inferno's navigators got to work immediately. They magnified the viewscreen focussing on the conglomeration of vessels, they could clearly see the Hood and just about make out the black outlines of the Security Council vessels against the stark light of their running lights. Behind the vessels was a ship nearly as large as the Hood itself, although it shared a build pattern completely add odds with the warship -it also looked to be travelling backwards.

Professor Byrd seemed utterly transfixed he slowly walked closer to the viewscreen. 'I don't believe it. How is this even possible?'

'How is what possible?' asked the High Marshall, his brow furrowed with confusion.

'To be back here.' Continued the professor to himself he didn't seem to have heard the high marshall's question. 'It should be crossing the interstellar medium it shouldn't be here, it should be halfway by now this is what has the director spooked.'

'What has the director spooked?' glowered the high marshall, he then shouted to get the professors attention. 'Just what in the hell is going on!'

Professor Byrd jumped as if startled then looked back to the high marshall. '…It… it is… Christ I can't bring myself to say it… look I am shaking.'

'Say what?' glowered the high marshall, he looked ready to erupt. 'Are you having a stroke, spit it out man!'

'It's the Purest Intent.' Whispered the lord admiral, the professor nodded his thanks.

A wave of recognition hit the high marshall like a tsunami, likewise with the bridge crew and the president elect. 'It should be at Alpha Centauri by now what the hell is it doing here… no wait you don't think they made it there and were attacked?'

'Proxima Centauri.' Stated the professor. 'They were headed to Proxima Centauri. It was estimated to be a voyage of three hundred years meaning if they should be anywhere it would be just over half way, unless that is they invented faster than light travel during their voyage.'

'Is that likely?' asked the lord admiral.

'We have made modern advances in sub-light fusion reactors.' Replied the professor. 'Therefore it would stand to reason that they could have too. But faster than light travel, no I don't think that is plausible. If I had to guess it is that the Arkship's returning has caused quite a stir in the intelligence community, so much so that Victor risked everything to be the only one on scene to negotiate terms of their re-entry into the solar system.'

'What about the First Contact Protocol?' asked the president elect making her most cogent argument since boarding the flagship. 'If they're ours then why the need for the protocol?'

'They are not ours.' Countered the professor. 'They've been gone for over a hundred and fifty years granted if memory serves they had stasis pods for a number of the crew but I would hazard a guess that only a small minority of the original crew may still be alive if any at all.

'For all intents and purposes they might as well be aliens, their ancestors renounced their oaths to the solar system and the government of the day, they sold all property and gave up all rights. The First Contact Protocol would be the most logical procedure to follow-'

'What are those?' asked the president elect cutting off the professor mid flow while pointing to the representation of the Arkship.

'What are what?' asked the high marshall.

'Those holes there.' Continued the president elect. 'Those three holes they can't be a part of the design can they look they are massive?'

They all looked at the ever increasing view of the Arkship she was getting larger every second and so were the holes, a wave of recognition hit the admiral. 'Great gods she has been attacked, the Arkship has been attacked.'

'Who by?' asked the high marshall. 'Could it have been Victor?'

The lord admiral ignored the commander instead he addressed the menial who seemed overwhelmed by the situation. 'As soon as we are in comms range hail the vessel we believe Victor is travelling on.'

The High Council members settled into an uneasy silence each lost in thought to what problems the Arkship would bring with it, would the people on board just want to bed back into humanity or would they petition for a seat on the High Council. Thoughts were abruptly interrupted when the Security Council vessels began to move, they began to move towards them in an obvious attack formation. The Inferno's navigation and weapons officers called out that the vessels had brought up their shields and were bringing their weapons online and to bare. Were they seriously considering taking on a significantly larger mass of vessels that outclassed every one of theirs save for the Hood?

'Lord Admiral.' Called out on of the comms officers, we are being hailed by Sigma Five Zero the admiral gestured for it to be put on screen.

The view afforded of the Sigma Five Zero was shocking, Captain Lerida stood with one hand around the scruff of Victors neck with her other she had her sidearm pointed at his head, he was bleeding profusely from the top of his scalp evidently the captain had employed negative reinforcement.

The captain's next words added credence to this. 'I am addressing the High Council this is Captain Elizabeth Lerida of the stealth corvette Sigma Five Zero. I have the Director Victor Sagittar under arrest.'

'Victor what the hell are you playing at?' asked the lord admiral. 'Order your forces to power down their weapons and to withdraw immediately.'

Victor said nothing he just stared at them for a long moment with a look of utter contempt.

'Victor?' repeated the lord admiral.

'Lord Admiral I beseech you to withdraw.' Cut in Captain Lerida as it became obvious that the director wasn't going to reply. The captain looked frantic, the admiral could see Rebecca and Adam on her flanks with weapons pointed. 'The Director made it clear to me that he would rather see you die here today than allow you to learn the truth of what happened to the Arkship.'

The high marshall looked incandescent as if he was ready to explode but the lord admiral fended him off. 'Victor you are outgunned three to one and outclassed as most of your forces are frigates and corvettes stand down now. Stand down now are you will be getting a lot of good men and women killed.'

Menials interrupted the conversation by running up to the lord admiral with data pads, one gestured to the hololith projector above their heads. The hololith showed new vessels, they appeared as singles then there was twenty then thirty they were thousands of kilometres out but closing fast. These were not corvettes and frigates they were carriers and battleships, they were also not USC Navy, they were Security Council vessels and with one swift move the shadow admiral had tipped the balance of the potential engagement firmly in their favour.

'Now it is you who is outgunned.' Smirked Victor, before Captain Lerida hit him again with her pistol, he winced in pain. 'I will accept your surrender if you do so immediately after that I can't guarantee your safety. I suggest you withdraw to the inner colonies and allow the security council to manage this matter.'

Instead of looking rattled the lord admiral seemed to take on a menacing aspect his normally calm exterior melted away, he said through gritted his teeth. 'We will not surrender Victor, we will get to the truth. You may have numerical superiority now but we only have to kill you and the shadow admiral then the rest will fall into line. Stand. Down. Now.'

'The truth is all we have.' Answered Victor. 'But it cannot be bandied about frivolously if I let you live and you learn the truth it will be in this evenings news bulletins.'

'We wouldn't leak anything.' Countered the lord admiral, his face darkening he looked hurt. 'We are in this together whatever befouled the Arkship will be kept a matter of the strictest confidence.'

'The strictest of confidence?' asked Victor rhetorically, he shot him a wicked look. 'You have the President Elect in your company, her and her staff have been leaking the amount of defence spending for the last twenty six months to justify their bleating on and demands about downsizing the size of the military. Her or her staffers will leak the information.

'It will be out there and it will scare the living piss out of every person in the solar system it will change the consciousness of our entire civilisation. There will be religious wars far worse than those in the aftermath of the Night of the 13th Revolution as once faithful adherents to their religions will question their place in the cosmos for they have been lied to for millennia.

'Not just that for now and all time humanity will look to the systems edge and quake with fear. They will wake up each morning thinking will today be the day that the aliens come and do the same thing they did to the _Purest Intent._ I would rather assassinate the entire High Council out here where no one can see than let the population of the solar system find out what befouled the Arkship or even learn of its reappearance. I am not about to let that happen. Withdraw or die.'

'Then we choose to die.' Replied Admiral Dante with that the admiral cut the link.

'I don't choose to die!' shrieked the president elect. 'lord admiral this is ridiculous you have to withdraw.'

Before the lord admiral could respond the high marshall rounded on her. 'I knew it was you whose been leaking that information you rancid bitch I'll swing for you!'

'Silence!' bellowed the lord admiral in an uncharacteristic show of anger, so much so he silenced the high marshall. 'If Victor so much as orders one weapon to fire we will take out every vessel near the Arkship, once we cut the head from the Security Council the rest will fall in line.'

'You can't be serious.' The president elect shrieked again. 'If this got out that an engagement has been fought between the High Council leaders this could ruin us!'

'It could ruin you, you mean?' sneered the high marshall.

'Enough!' roared the admiral, he then gave his bridge crew an order which made their blood run cold. 'Beat to quarters. Battle stations.'

With that every weapon system was brought online, every vessels shields were powered up, everywhere across the USC fleet marines were prepping to defend against boarders. They had come to the edge of the solar system looking for aliens and only found spooks. That and a lost branch of humanity. What they must think seeing its leaders at each other's throats.

'Do not wait to be fired upon.' Stated the lord admiral changing tack, the high marshall grinned viciously at the order. 'I want multiple firing solutions for every vessel I want them destroyed in one salvo, especially the shadow admiral's flagship as it presents the most significant threat.'

With that the time for talking was over the Security Council and the USC Navy would come into open conflict, they would decimate each other with rail cannon rounds, laser beams and missiles, there would be a war fought at the systems edge that would never see the light of day.

'My lord we have something!' bellowed the navigation officer standing up from his seat. 'Something big!'

'What is it?' asked the lord admiral looking from the view screen to make eye contact.

'Look sir!' pointed the navigation officer to the hololith above their heads. 'Look it is the Purest Intent she is powering up!'

The lord admiral looked shocked, they all did, and everyone looked to the hololith. There were two definitive power readings coming from the Arkship, one from her bow and one from her stern. Everyone stared at it for nearly a moment watching the venerable vessel come online, then the lord admiral looked to the hololith both the Security Council and USC forces were breaking formation and losing cohesion as their captains hesitation was evident in the face of this new development.

'My lord we are being hailed!' called out the comms officer.

All colour drained from the lord admiral's face. 'Who by the Arkship?'

'No sire.' Replied the comms officer. 'It is Captain Everson of the Southsea castle, he is hailing us the Hood and Sigma Five Zero.'

'Answer the hail.' Replied the lord admiral.

The hail was voice only the captain must not have wanted to have both aggressors to see each other.

'I wish I could say it was a privilege to be in such close proximity of such esteemed people.' Said the captain with anger running through his voice. 'But sadly I can't as I am disgusted with how our leaders are comporting themselves, if this is what we are lumbered with the solar system would be in safer hands being run by nursery children!'

'Lord Admiral Dante allow me to bring you and the High Council up to speed as I am sure Victor has told you nothing. As you might have now seen from extreme range the Arkship Purest Intent has returned, it is not under its own power and there has been weapons damage done to it, it is likely that extra-terrestrials are the culprits.

'What you won't have been close enough to see is the extent of the damage I am sending picts and vids now.' Which were received then displayed on the hololith. 'You will see that there is a ripple and warping effect to the metal. We believe that the Arkship was attacked by aliens at some point in its journey through the interstellar medium.

'That is all we know so you are now up to speed. No doubt you and the Security Council have registered the Arkship powering up. Well I can tell you it isn't the Arkship coming online, what you are detecting are the heat blooms and electrical discharge from two of my drop ships running their reactors at maximum to get your attention. Now this is where it gets interesting they have docked inside the warped damage zones fore and aft. The vessels are provisioned for two months and will only leave the Arkship under mine and mine orders alone.

'Here is the kicker ladies and gentleman I have also taken the liberty of arming the stealth ships with a tactical fusion warhead a piece which are more than enough to rip apart the Purest Intent and destroy any secrets she carries inside her. Know this and remember it well. If you sorry bunch of arseholes we have the misfortune of calling our leaders cannot get along like nice boys and girls I will personally detonate those warheads and blow that bastard Arkship and all of its secrets all the way to hell. Now do I make myself clear?'


	7. Plenty of Warning

Aboard the Asteroid Breaker Frigate Southsea Castle

Captain Daniel Everson was doing everything in his power to keep his limbs from shaking and to remain the master of his own bladder. He could not believe he had just spoken to the leaders of humanity with such derision. His crew couldn't believe it either that in one voyage he had gone from a lacklustre commander to a passionate and zealous leader. The four command vessels, the Southsea Castle, The Hood, Sigma Five Zero and the Inferno were now in a video conference. They were all staring at him their gaze especially the shadow admiral her stare boring into his soul. Captain Everson wondered if they would attack his frigate for what he had done. No one seemed willing to speak at first, the captain wondered if he had done the right thing but in his heart he knew he had.

'Just what in the hell do you think you are doing?' asked Victor breaking the silence, he seemed unfazed at the prospect of having a pistol pointed at his head.

'What am I doing?' asked Captain Everson rhetorically, he had to remain calm everything depended on these next few moments. 'You and the High Council were about to obliterate each other a moment ago I had to step in. From now on I am in control of The Purest Intent.'

'You are not in control.' Countered Victor, trying to shrug off Captain Lerida's grip but to no avail. 'You are just an ice jockey this is a matter for the Security Council we have jurisdiction here.'

'No you bloody well don't!' roared the high marshall, his face turning scarlet with rage. 'It only says you do as you wrote the damned protocol.'

'Enough!' spat Captain Everson. 'Don't think I am joking I will blow this bitch to kingdom come. I am in charge here and I will facilitate this conference. No one speaks unless spoken to by me is that clear?'

Everyone nodded in the affirmative except Victor who received another hit with the pistol butt but not before he asked. 'How do you think you have jurisdiction here?'

'Not that you should have asked.' Replied Captain Everson. 'But since you have allow me to enlighten you. Yes we suspect that aliens attacked the Arkship but until that can be proven it is pure conjecture and nothing more.

'Dealing with the situation at face value the Purest Intent is a wreck drifting through space and we the crew of the Southsea Castle are now its salvors. The Arkship is in real peril of not only being in harm's way but of also causing a real and present danger to human life of those dwelling in the sol system especially since its ultimate trajectory is Earth.'

'This is ridiculous.' Countered Victor shaking his head. 'We are wasting time you have no right being aboard the Arkship get your crew to disengage.'

'The captain is right.' Stated the lord admiral with a smile crossing his face. 'Under maritime law which is used in matters of the void, Captain Everson as the salvor has jurisdiction as the vessel is his until he can be remunerated for his services rendered.'

'I can't believe we are doing this.' Replied Victor under his breath. 'Fine I will play along. Captain Everson has not completed all of the three requirements under the law of salvage, he has met the first that the Arkship is in real peril. Yes he has met the second by volunteering his services but he has not met the third requirement. The Purest Intent is still hurtling in system it still presents a real and present danger to lives and property, to meet that requirement Captain Everson has to achieve full or even partial success he has met neither.'

Victor looked pleased with himself as he seemed to have won the argument that was until Captain Everson started to grin, he nodded to his XO then a new screen appeared on their conference it was a view of the Arkship. The entire starboard prow of The Purest Intent caught fire, the viewscreen panned and zoomed revealing hundreds of rockets seemingly chained to the Arkship, they were all at full power. They were portable fusion generators and drives designed to be attached to comets or asteroids to correct an errant rocks trajectory and this was what was happening here. Ever so slowly the drives dubbed party poppers were pulling the Arkship to starboard and away from the solar system.

'As you can see director.' Stated Captain Everson. 'The portable drives are correcting the Arkship's heading. There are party poppers to her portside also meaning we have full manoeuvrability. Granted we cannot move her very quickly or bring her to a halt therefore I would not call this a complete success but it is well within the limits of a partial success.'

'But.' Said Victor with sneer. 'When the criteria for salvage is met the ship becomes the property of the United Solar Council so you have to surrender the vessel.'

'Not so.' Countered the lord admiral. 'The Purest Intent is private property and under such circumstances the salvor would keep custody of the property until such a time the owner could be found to remunerate the salvor for services rendered.'

'Now considering that there is no one in the solar system who owns her.' Continued Captain Everson. 'And the Arkship is a wreck and dead in space, it is highly unlikely an owner will be found. So under maritime law, as the salvor I am legally entitled to keep possession of the wreck in payment of services rendered.

'With the admiral being here and with the matter being under maritime law he has jurisdiction to rule on this matter. Of course if you would like to lodge an appeal you have the right to take this matter to the Admiralty Board or the Receiver of Wreck but that will take time we don't have an bring more people into our little secret, it is up to you director.'

'Fine.' Victor let out a pent up sigh of frustration as he knew he had lost. 'What happens now?'

'It depends on Captain Everson.' Stated the lord admiral. 'He is now the de facto owner and captain of the Purest Intent we take his lead from here on in.'

'The Security Council and USC Navy vessels will shutter their weapons.' Stated Captain Everson. 'There will be no aggressive actions towards one another, we will convene aboard the Inferno to discuss this matter in a civil manner. To ensure cooperation from both parties my drop ships and warheads will remain in place. I would suggest that Captain Lerida keep Victor under arrest and convey him to the flagship under armed guard.'

'On what grounds?' asked Victor incredulously.

'Travelling without transponders in Mars territory for one thing.' Replied the lord admiral. 'Not to mention using void boosters in an atmosphere. You will not try to break free from Captain Lerida, admonish or punish the captain for warning us.' The lord admiral then addressed Captain Everson. 'Is there anything else to discuss before we adjourn?'

'Yes.' Replied the captain. 'I don't think that it is too much of a stretch to the imagination to think that we are going to have to board her. We will need a top flight infiltration team.'

'I will organise that.' Stated the high marshall. 'I will petition to have the closest Old Guard battalion dispatched immediately.'

'There may be a slight problem with that, high marshall.' Interrupted Victor.

'What problem?' grumbled the high marshall.

'Operation Inauguration Day.' Replied Victor. 'The closest Old Guard force is the 13th Battalion and it is partially deployed to this undertaking.'

'Operation Inauguration Day?' asked the admiral with a quizzical look.

The high marshall looked to Professor Byrd before speaking. 'Victor's operatives came into intelligence information that a splinter group involved in the assassination of Professor Dexter are holed up on a derelict mining installation in the atmosphere of Uranus. Right about now the strike should be happening, after their after action report I will petition the Old Man to immediately replenish then redeploy the 13th Battalion.'

'Why wasn't I told?' asked Professor Byrd.

'Why weren't we all told?' chimed in the president elect.

'You would have been informed.' Stated the high marshall, addressing the professor and ignoring the president elect. 'But the Arkship appeared, it was to be disclosed prior to your inauguration.'

'I suppose I have had quite an Inauguration Day so far.' Stated the professor, he wasn't joking but the assemblage laughed. He was forcing himself to play along he still felt that Victor was the one responsible or knew who was. He shot Victor a murderous look. 'At least someone will pay for the death of my mentor.'

'Very well.' Stated the lord admiral. 'If there is no further business we will convene in ten hours aboard the Inferno to thrash out the particulars.'

With that the link was cut Captain Everson let out a pent up breath he didn't realise he was holding, he couldn't believe he had pulled it off, it was the worst idea he had ever had and somehow it had worked. As soon as the screen went to black his bridge crew erupted in raucous cheer and applause. Jeanette crossed the space to be next to her captain.

'That was bloody well brilliant.' Whispered Jeanette. 'I can't believe you are now owner and captain of the Purest Intent what would little Daniel have said if he knew what he was to become?'

'It would certainly take the sting out of the beatings he took.' Replied Captain Everson with a smile. 'This is so surreal being in command of the ship that made me join the navy.'

'It will be even stranger when you walk into that briefing as master of the Purest Intent.' Smiled Jeanette.

'You mean when we walk in, you're coming with me.' Captain Everson gave the Purest Intent a worried look. 'Have our navigators keep scanning the mass we found if they detect any activity they are to let us know immediately.' Captain Everson took another look at the ghost ship he felt fear in the pit of his stomach. 'We will need plenty of warning.'


	8. Suicide Mission

Aboard Old Guard stealth attack dropship in orbit of Uranus about to commence Operation Inauguration Day

To anyone within visible range of the hunter killer the flattened arrowhead assault craft would look no more than a glimmer against the black backdrop of space for it employed the latest stealth nanotechnology. Every surface of the assault craft was covered in a layer of nanites, these molecular machines being able to mimic the environment the craft found itself in effectively cloaking it. Stealth was the key to success in this mission as only one company of Old Guard were to strike at a freedom fighter held derelict mining installation deep in the atmosphere of Uranus occupied by potentially thousands of freedom fighters.

Government and private military formations had been fighting a guerrilla war with raiders and freedom fighters for well over a century, so being sent on a raid was their bread and butter. For Lieutenant Colonel Aldrich Breckenridge a grizzled Battalion commander this mission had special significance for intelligence reached them from the Security Council that the freedom fighters manning the derelict they were about to strike were suspected to be a part of the strike force that had assassinated the late council member Professor Timothy Dexter.

The briefing was that the freedom fighters had scattered throughout the solar system after the successful attempt on the professor's life. Colonel Breckenridge vowed to hunt down every one of the bastards. This was the first time in a year since the assassination that they had been able to track down anyone. It was not lost on the lieutenant colonel that today was the inauguration of Professor Byrd, obviously the director had been saving this information for today.

The colossal blue marble that was Uranus grew in the view screen of the assault crafts bridge with every passing second, visible now were the continent sized fuel processing plants in orbit of the gas giant. There were thousands of glinting lights heading to and from these plants, Colonel Breckenridge knew that they were fuel tankers plying their trade between the planets of the solar system, as well as their military escorts to keep them safe from fuel raiders.

Deeper in the atmosphere city sized spears were visible these were floating mining cities responsible for capturing the precious gases necessary for keeping the void ships of the solar system running. Intermingled between the atmosphere and the void were starports and military naval fleets charged with protecting the mining operations, as well as orbital weapons platforms.

No one knew of this operation not the mining companies nor the military personnel for fear of leaks, it was damn near impossible to locate the derelict installations as they hid in the deepest and darkest storms where no one dared to go. They couldn't risk anyone on the raider's payroll leaking the strike, it was so secret they had travelled the entire way from Titania via assault craft and not by strike cruiser so they could minimise detection.

'We have the coordinates of the derelict locked in?' asked Colonel Breckenridge, while resting a hand on the pilots chair to steady himself as the assault craft was being captured by the gravity well of Uranus.

'Yes, Lieutenant Colonel.' Replied the Pilot, while keeping a vice like grip on the crafts controls to keep her steady. 'Coordinates are locked in, we will be in strike range within ten minutes.'

'How deep in are they?' asked the colonel.

'Deep.' Replied the pilot. 'Real deep the furthest into the atmosphere of a gas giant I've ever seen a mining city to be even a derelict one.'

'Are you picking up the derelicts electrical signature?'

The pilot half laughed half sniggered. 'You're joking right? She is in one of the largest electrical storms on the planet. What with the storm systems we likely won't see her or detect her until we are practically on top of her.'

'Do you think anyone could see us coming?' asked the Colonel, he was banking on landing unopposed on their landing pads then striking for the command and control centre.

'That depends.' The pilot shrugged, not an easy task when she was fighting to keep them level. 'They won't be able to track our electrical signals for the same reason we can't track theirs therefore that leaves sensors.

'If they have standard radar they haven't got a chance of seeing us until it's too late. If they have infrared detection gear especially with the heat of our entry we might as well be a giant flaming comet. The Uranian local authority, as well as their protection fleet could have spotted us from Titania if they had of been looking but we are a small cloaked force we should go unnoticed to them at least. To be honest I am surprised that the Security Council found her, it should have been nigh on impossible.'

'Fair enough.' Replied Colonel Breckenridge, musing to himself for a moment. He had thought this himself it would have been like looking for a needle in a stack of needles 'If the raiders spot us and open fire we will jump. If we have to jump de-cloak and try your best to look frantic then bug out when you hit two kilometres.

'With a bit of luck it may fool them into thinking that we have aborted or it was a scouting run. If USC forces spot us use our security codes and inform them of our mission, by the time you get the fleet to stand down it should be too late for anyone to leak to the derelict.'

Colonel Breckenridge then headed to the cargo hold, he crossed into an airlock between the cockpit and the hold. The Colonel locked himself into the airlock then entered the hold. Inside the hold were a platoon strength force, they were two squads from a company named _The Scavengers,_ the Colonel had chosen them for this operation as they always fought like bastards. _The Scavengers_ had gotten their name during the start of the guerrilla war in the wake of the Night of the 13th Revolution.

The company came into conflict with a renegade brigade that had colluded with religious fanatics against the United Solar Council, they were from a former royal French regiment. The French commanding officer had called them scavengers, that they were not even fit enough to clean their boots let alone best them in combat. The company won the day and the name had stuck.

There were twenty men readying their weapons and gear for the drop, every one of the ten squads that made up the company were named after scavengers, the two squads in the hold were _The Jackals_ and _The Vultures_. The cargo hold was narrow, seats were in two rows facing each other, with a walk way in the centre. Mag-locked below the seat were their trooper's weapons and above was their full faced helmets.

The assault craft were flying in formation with four other assault craft that would strike against the derelict. Colonel Breckenridge took his allotted seat and started to ready his gear. The Colonel and the rest of his Battalion had been enjoying a cycle of leave at the para-terraformed city of Gertrude built into a crater of the same name, on the Uranian moon of Titania.

That had abruptly ended when a top priority strike order had come through from Director Victor Sagittar and counter signed by the High Marshall himself. The enormity of their agreement on this matter alone signified the significance of this undertaking for it was well known that there was no love lost between them. Colonel Breckenridge felt the Directors machinations in this endeavour for today was not just the anniversary of the late professor's death it was also the inauguration day of Professor David Byrd the man who was to be elevated as the fifth ruling council member. To be able to announce that some of those suspected of murdering Professor Dexter had been put to death on the inauguration day would send a resounding message to the rest of the solar system.

As a battalion commander it was not necessary for Colonel Breckenridge to lead this operation but the so called freedom fighters had struck at the heart of everything he stood for and believed in, besides he always led from the front. To his junior officers he told them it was so that he could lead by example, the real reason was that if his command decision was ever wrong he wouldn't have to live with a decision that got his boys killed. Colonel Breckenridge smirked to himself at the thought of the word _boys_ for not one person in the Old Guard was under the age of forty five.

Having checked his own gear, he then studiously cast his gaze around the cargo hold watching his men as they readied theirs, checking weapons and ammunition. The troopers wore armour of a heavy Kevlar weave with titanium threading, which could take a tremendous amount of punishment, this was not standard issue –as it was far too expensive for every soldier to own- only the elite got issued this equipment as they normally operated without the luxury of heavy armour or air support. Their armour also consisted of a full faced helmet which could seal the wearer from the outside environment in case a trooper had to operative in a vacuum.

'This has to be more than a retaliation.' Said Captain John Garland, the leader of the Scavengers, who was sat opposite the Colonel. 'Before the order game through, the word on Gertrude was that there is a mass mobilisation underway, there is rumblings of a major push on all fronts.' John then spoke in a hushed tone. 'There was even rumblings about the Knights and the Colossi.'

Colonel Breckenridge smiled at the thought, the Orders of Knights and the Colossi battle machines were spoken with reverence by all. It was no small wonder at the contradiction, that in this modern age of space exploration they too were living in times of hero Knights and colossal fighting monsters. The Knights went into battle in their advanced armour sat astride semi-sentient steeds and the Colossi were skyscraper sized battle robots capable of levelling cities. The former were founded around the same time as the Old Guard and the latter were brought into being when humanities cradle only included Earth.

Colonel Breckenridge nodded. 'I've heard much the same but I don't think it will come to anything.'

'You don't?' asked Captain Garland, with a quizzical look.

'Every few years there's rumours of a big push.' Replied the Colonel. 'Call me jaded but I think this raid is political in nature as today is the inauguration of Professor Byrd. That is not to say I am not willing to lay down my life for the High Council.

'But I do not see a major push on the cards the raiders and freedom fighters are not a conventional force. Yes we can root out these derelict installation but their main forces are intermingled with civilians. Hell we have no idea how many of them there are or where their main bases are or if they have any, after all some say their power is waning. At any road I don't think you will be able to see your Colossi or Knights any time soon.'

'I've always want to see them.' Mused the captain wistfully his face was then tinged with worry. 'Permission to speak sir?'

'Always.'

'This is not about you stepping on my toes or any such nonsense.' Said Captain Garland. 'It is an honour to have you with us but is it a good idea you being here with us you know the casualty projections on this operation?'

Colonel Breckenridge didn't reply right away he merely offered a grim smile with no warmth in it, he had indeed seen the casualty projections, it was expected that not a single one of them would survive this mission. Although he would not share it with his Captain that was why he was here for he would not send someone else to die in his stead he would not watch his fine brave men go into certain death and watch from the side-lines, he would rather die.

'You got me there, Captain.' Replied Colonel Breckenridge, trying to think of an answer. 'What they did is too close to home, if our government was tyrannical I would be the first to try and topple it but it's not so anyone that tries to take that away from me I will rip their balls off and feed them to them.'

Captain Garland shook his head while laughing heartedly. 'Now that will be a sight to see.'

The conversation was cut off as the stealth ship rolled sharply to one side then another, pitching a few troopers to the floor, Colonel Breckenridge would have been tipped over had it not been for Captain Garland's reflexes keeping his superior upright.

The speakers in the cargo hold crackled to life, it was the pilot addressing the kill team. 'Coming into dive range in five minutes. I repeat, coming into dive range in five minutes. Colonel Breckenridge the derelict must have infrared they've engaged us, we are taking heavy fire, we are going through evasive manoeuvres.'

'Alright, final combat preparation!' snapped Captain Garland, while jumping to his feet, looking around the cargo bay. 'I want weapons locked and loaded. We won't be landing gentlemen as its too hot we are jumping. Are you with me?'

'Sir, yes, Sir!' came a wave of affirmations as the troopers began checking and re-checking their gear.

Aside from the weapons they would be carrying into combat –which was mostly armour piercing assault rifles- ammunition, as well as checking their combat suits. There was one component to their suits which had to be tripled checked, as it was integral for their survival, attached to the back of each troopers combat suit was a micro-propulsion unit.

The propulsion unit was normally used as a backup should the kill team have to abandon their assault craft during anti-aircraft fire. With a bit of luck the freedom fighters on the derelict wouldn't see their drop, however if they did have infrared they might see them coming.

'Dive range in three minutes.' Came the crackling voice of the pilot through the speakers in the cargo hold.

Colonel Breckenridge leapt to his feet, turning to face his seat, he grasped for his combat helmet that was mag-locked to the bulk head –this action was mirrored by the entire kill team- he then turned to face the rear of the cabin and put on his helmet. The view now affording him was a lime green hue, as the helmets heads up display (HUD) brought up bio readings for his troopers, as well as other tactical information.

'We are to head for the main spire.' shouted Colonel Breckenridge, his voice now had a deep metallic edge as it was being fed through his helmets speakers. 'Our main objective is to fight our way down and take the command centre, the other platoons will hit outlying sectors and dig in to confuse the enemy. Form up for the drop!'

'Form up!' bellowed Captain Garland, his voice also had a metallic hard edge through his helmet. At the colonel's order the troopers made for the back of the craft, they were now two abreast in the walk way facing the debarkation ramp –with weapons mag-locked to their fronts. Each trooper had form fitting external combat webbing attached to their combat suits, affixed to the webbing were grenades, armour piercing clips for their assault rifles and combat knives for close combat fighting –each squad had a sapper who carried explosives and breaching charges.

'Dive range in 30 seconds.' Said the pilot through the holds speakers. 'Go on green.'

All eyes in the cargo hold, fell on two bulbs which were fixed to a mechanical box with a red lever built into it –one bulb was green, but not alight, the other was red, which was lit- this was the control for the cargo ramp, when the lever was activated a small explosive charges would blow the ramp open so they could debark in an instant.

The light changed to green, the trooper nearest to the lever didn't wait to be ordered. He hammered on the control and with a muted thud the debarkation ramp blew open, the kill team were literally ripped from the cargo hold with the force of decompression.

Colonel Breckenridge was last to be pulled from the assault craft, just behind Captain Garland. Once clear of the assault craft Colonel Breckenridge assumed the dive position keeping his arms flush with his sides he plummeted through the atmosphere. They fell into a roughly arrowhead formation the colonel took up a position at the back of the arrows right arm so that he could oversee their dispersal.

Coordinates being fed onto his HUD told him they were on course with the derelict, they were travelling at a phenomenal speed. His combat suit was the only thing keeping him conscious, the sound of the air rushing by was deafening. Even when being dampened through his helmet, there was no point in trying to issue orders to his troopers when in free fall until they reached the derelict for now they were on their own.

The assault craft they had been travelling in fell into a dive a few hundred metres to their fore, the stealth craft de-cloaked as per the colonels orders, fire from the derelict intensified. With all his might the colonel turned his neck and scanned to his left and right he could see that the other assault crafts were de-cloaked, no doubt the troopers in them had already jumped.

They were maintaining a strong formation despite the hurricane force winds buffeting them, but they had to drop through several storms systems to mask their approach as much as possible, if they hit clear skies it would be suicide. Suddenly a rogue lightning strike off to their left flank struck a trooper close to Colonel Breckenridge.

The man was sent flailing, his arms and legs flapping at his sides the trooper was either dead or unconscious, the extra drag caused by not being in the dive position made him slow down and break formation. The trooper seemingly shot up into the sky where in fact the rest of the kill team were just falling far faster.

Colonel Breckenridge brought up the command roster on his HUD to see who had been hit, to his horror it had been Captain Garland. Losing any member of the company would have been a blow. But losing the captain was a bitter one, the colonel was the overall commander of the Battalion but loyalties among companies were fierce. Losing their closest superior may dent the courage of his men the colonel certainly hoped it wouldn't.

Colonel Breckenridge was brought out of his worries of team cohesion by the tactical display sending a shrill through his helmet, a proximity alarm on his HUD told him they were nearing their target. For a few seconds between breaks in the storms, out of the cloud formations and lighting racked super storms revealed a nightmarish structure.

It was harsh black against the deep blue of the atmosphere of Uranus. The derelict instillation was just that it was a chaotic conglomeration of spires, gantries and platforms. The raider instillation would have been a once proud mining city feeding the people of the Sol system with vital star ship fuel, now it was a pirate safe haven used in order to raid its kin and harbour fugitives from justice.

The platoons were ten kilometres from their target and falling fast, the _Jackals_ and the _Vultures_ headed towards the main spire but the rest of the platoons scattered with their assault crafts to head to their designated landing zones.

They were six kilometres from their target when the worst thing that could possibly happen, happened. They reached a break in the storm open skies led all the way to the derelict they were in trouble. To punctuate this anti-aircraft fire intensified, the major saw their stealth craft take minor hits as the derelict was now able to get a clear range.

Evidently they had not seen the kill team yet as they would not come into visual range until they were a few hundred metres out. Also diving out of the cloud cover were the four other assault craft, they too had kill teams falling in their shadows like schools of remora fish, the attack crafts took more hits but the distance coupled with the speed they were falling was making them a difficult target to hit let alone damage.

At two kilometres from the derelict, as planned the assault crafts abandoned their attack peeling off in chaotic trajectories trying to sell the idea of a frantic retreat, it seemed to have worked as the tracer fire stopped as soon as the assault crafts bugged out. Now was the crucial time, they had to fire their propulsion packs at the right moment, as right now the raiders couldn't see them, but when they did they could lay waste to them in seconds with tracer fire, if they used their propulsion pack to early they would be obliterated.

They closed to a kilometre the anti-aircraft fire opened up again this time it was aimed at them, audible whistles of ammunition could be heard even over the sound of their descent. It was like diving through rain and as inevitable of getting wet in a thunderstorm a trooper was hit.

The ill-fated trooper was at the front of their formation, the round that hit him was designed to penetrate the hull armour of a craft then explode inside its superstructure to cause maximum damage. The effect on the trooper was like an exploding grapefruit, his insides became his outsides in a blink of an eye. His comrades and the colonel were spattered with blood and bone fragments, the tracer fire intensified as they hit the three hundred metre mark. Due to the problem with communication, it fell to those at the front of the formation to call when it was time to fire their packs.

At two hundred and fifty metres the trooper at the forefront of their formation fired his propulsion pack, within a matter of seconds they all fired their propulsion packs. Colonel Breckenridge was last to fire his propulsion unit. The packs were built into the back of their suits, they were only revealed when it was time for them to be used. So that when they were not in use they did not spoil the aerodynamics of the suit when in free fall.

The pack was activated when plates on the colonels back snapped open to reveal the vents of the jet pack, whilst also creating enough drag to slow him. This afforded him the ability to get out of the dive position, he was now in a horizontal seating position as the propulsion pack fired, two jets of plasma fire erupted from his back an instantly began to arrest his velocity, he began to slow dramatically.

As he did so he stole a quick look at his team roster, another trooper had been killed and worryingly the colonel hadn't seen it happen. They were now amongst the higher most spires thankfully they were out of the range of the tracer fire. By now every raider would be aware they were about to be boarded. Due to slowing dramatically they were back in communications range. Colonel Breckenridge saw a maintenance landing pad on the central main spire of the derelict, it was battered and blackened from lightning, but it was their best chance at landing in one group.

'Head to that maintenance pad.' Ordered Colonel Breckenridge, as he fired his propulsion pack to travel in the direction of the pad. The colonel signified the landing zone via his HUD.

In one sustained burst he arced to the platform and with another burst from the pack he landed on the platform. The colonel skipped forward a few times as he touched down to prevent him from somersaulting, as he came to a full stop the rest of the kill team landed around him.

Colonel Breckenridge looked at what was left of his team after the drop, while they were readying their gear, including the Captain Garland he was three men down. Besides the captain, Vickers the company's executive officer and Sergeant Hackerman squad leader of the _Vultures_ had also been killed. That was the reality of warfare death did not respect rank. Apart from the colonel the platoon was down to one leader and he didn't want to deprive the _Jackals_ of their sergeant, he would either take command himself or nominate a trooper, a thought came to him unbidden a conversation he had had with the late Captain Garland while they had been at Gertrude.

'Trooper Harrison.' Calling over the trooper, the man was the youngest in the company but Captain Garland had earmarked him for command. It seemed fitting for him to take over now, the colonel would see what the kid could do. It would be interesting as his colleagues called him "the lad" on account of his youth, despite him being forty five.

'Sir?' asked trooper Harrison, he like other members of the kill team were splattered with their fallen comrade's blood.

'You are acting Captain.' Stated Colonel Breckenridge. 'I will be your second in command, your orders sir?'

The new _Scavengers_ commander paused for a moment to think, Colonel Breckenridge had been cruel putting him on the spot but if the projected losses were correct this would not only be his first command, it would be his last.

'We shall secure the maintenance pad.' Stated acting Captain Harrison. 'I will leave one trooper to guard it in the unlikely event that we make it out of the command centre. We need to move fast before anyone comes looking.'

Captain Harrison rushed off to set things into motion, Colonel Breckenridge brought up his tactical display and hooked himself into the battle net, listening intently to how the other teams were faring. As far as he could tell the other kill teams had made it with minimal casualties –they were now locked in fire fights with the raiders- their mission was to take as much attention from the main spire as possible so the raiders didn't expect a strike at their heart.

The colonel looked now at their present location relative to the command and control centre, more out of luck than planning it seemed that they were only a few floors above their objective, Colonel Breckenridge closed his tactical display and headed across the platform. The colonel reached the entrance to the spire, it too was blackened much like the rest of the derelict. A lone trooper was guarding the entrance the others had continued inside, as did the colonel. Once inside he emerged onto another platform, this time of corrugated iron, leading from here were massive spiral staircases leading up and down from the level he currently stood.

Lying prone on the platform were four raiders they wore dirty mining uniforms with antiquated bullet proof vests each had sported shotguns which were now scattered around them. Checking the bodies was Captain Harrison the other troopers were looking up and down over the spiral staircases to see if any more contacts were moving to engage, seeing the colonel approach the captain stood up.

'Colonel' Stated the Sergeant, while gesturing to the dead raiders. 'We hit them as they were heading down the stairs, we used knives so not too raise alarm. I have sent two troopers down to scout out the command centre.'

'Very good' Replied Colonel Breckenridge, he was impressed at the newly acting captains tactical acumen so far, if they both survived this mission there may be a commission in it for him. The colonel could check on the status of the scouts himself, but the Sergeant had things in hand. 'As you were captain.'

The captain nodded evidently talking on a private channel with the scouts, after a brief silence he turned back to the colonel. 'The entrance to the command centre isn't guarded, the scouts have attached breaching charges to the doors to force an entrance.' The captain then switched to a squad wide band. 'Everyone move out.'

Captain Harrison led from the front, he charged down the stairs, leaving one man to guard the door. Captain Harrison with his men and Colonel Breckenridge behind him ran down the stairs as stealthily as possible. After six flights of stairs and three floors later they reached the entrance to the command centre.

The door was two massive bulkheads attached too industrial gears to open and close it, the doors used counterweights as methods for opening them attached to these were the explosives placed by the sappers. The scouts themselves were crouched at the foot of the stairs facing the door, hearing the kill team approach one of the scouts rose to his feet and turned around.

'There has been no movement.' Reported the lead scout, while gesturing to the armoured door 'If they know we are here they aren't letting on. The explosives and breaching charges are on remote detonators.'

Captain Harrison looked to the scout then to the colonel, even without being able to look through the acting captain's visor Colonel Breckenridge could sense his subordinate's hesitation. The colonel looked to the scout. 'Give us a second.'

Colonel Breckenridge watched the scout creep over to double check the explosives, he then turned back to the acting captain he opened a private channel between the two. 'What's on your mind?'

'It feels like a trap.' Replied Captain Harrison, while taking a sidelong look at the rigged doors. 'We have to assume that the four we killed were a recon party. There hasn't been any more since and we have entered their command and control spire with minimal resistance, the outlying sectors are under heavy fire. Why aren't they defending this place robustly unless they have hatched a plan?'

The colonel laughed a short chuckle then said. 'You're absolutely right, captain, they probably know we're coming. Let me ask you this, with that knowledge can you do a thing about it?'

The Captain shook his head.

'Then don't worry about it, lad.' The colonel clapped his hand against the captains shoulder guard. 'I know it's easier said than done, but this is what we live for this is what we were created to do.

'We accept the high risk missions where there is a disgusting cost to life but the benefit to mankind far outweighs the personal cost to the Old Guard.' Colonel Breckenridge gestured to the bulkhead. 'Those fuckers in there killed Professor Timothy Dexter, do you want them to get away with it?'

Captain Harrison vehemently shook his head. 'Fuck no, sir.'

'Fuck no.' repeated Colonel Breckenridge, with a wide smile hidden beneath his visor. 'You are going to go places Trevor, I can tell, you want to know what I am doing here? Even I know it is rare for a Colonel to volunteer for a suicide mission. Do you know why I am leading from the front?'

'Sir?'

'I lead from the front so that if my decision was wrong I will go down with those I sent to their deaths.'

Captain Harrison nodded his understanding, he brought up his assault rifle then took a sidelong glance at his sapper. 'Blow it.'

Before the sapper could detonate his explosives Captain Harrison was on his feet and sprinting for the closed door, the rest of the kill team sprinted after him with Colonel Breckenridge hot on their heels. The explosives blew when Captain Harrison was ten feet from the doors, the captain was lost in a wash of sparks and flame.

The detonation severed the counterweights as planned, dust, debris and metal shards blew out everywhere. That didn't stop Captain Harrison he disappeared from sight charging through the ruined door and into the command and control centre followed by his men. They charged in with guns drawn, Captain Harrison expected extreme resistance but they were greeted with an empty chamber.

As the dust settled from the detonation, they got their first proper look of the command and control centre, it was a massive oval chamber at the heart of the spire. Its entire ceiling being made up of reinforced glass looking out to the rest of the nightmarish structure of the derelict and the blue sky of Uranus beyond.

They were in the centre of the chamber in a combat wheel, radiating out from around them were masses of desk's and operating stations, which looked to have been recently abandoned. Captain Harrison and Colonel Breckenridge were in the centre of the combat wheel. They looked around the chamber bemused, had the freedom caught on and evacuated? The colonel was about to state this opinion.

'We have you surrounded.' Boomed a deep voice, which echoed around the command chamber. 'If you open fire you will all die.'


	9. Over My Dead Body

Derelict Control Room Ambush

The Scavengers kept their weapons pointed out they closed ranks protecting their superiors. Revealing themselves one by one were dozens of raiders from behind the desks and operating stations. They too wore the drab and dirty mining uniforms worn by the four they killed on the stairs. They carried small arms mainly assault rifles and shotguns.

More raiders showed themselves with every passing second, within moments there was fifty raiders with weapons drawn and pointed at the platoon. Emerging from a set of stairs at the top of the dome was a lone man, he carried no weapons but looked dangerous nonetheless. The man wore the same mining uniform but his features were set in stone, his gait confident he was used to giving orders this man was obviously their leader.

'Did you honestly think that we wouldn't see through your plan?' Sneered the leader of the raiders. As he neared them his features could be made out, he had a shock of brown hair and stern almost grey eyes. 'Whether by free fall or assault craft I knew you would try to take the central spire who commands here?'

Captain Harrison made to take a step forward, when he felt a firm grip on his shoulder holding him back. 'I am in command here, I am Lieutenant Colonel Aldrich Breckenridge commander of the 1031st Old Guard Battalion, upon this undertaking I am in personal command of a company named _The Scavengers_.'

'A Lieutenant Colonel?' scoffed the leader, while the sneer widened. 'Have you got nothing better to do than strike against a mere derelict?'

'You scummy bastards murdered Professor Timothy Dexter.' Replied the colonel with scorn, his words barking through his helmet speakers. 'Everyone of you are going to die today by order of the High Council.'

'The entire council deserves to die.' Sneered the leader. 'But the hit wasn't us, let me clarify not a single raider or freedom fighter took part in the assassination of Professor Timothy Dexter, if you wish to find the killer you need to look closer to home.'

'Don't try and worm your way out of this.' Spat back the colonel. 'We haven't come to arrest you this is an execution so you might as well admit what you did before you depart this mortal coil.'

'The High Council have a stranglehold of power over eight planets.' Replied their leader. 'Back on Earth before the unification, people could have their own country to rule how they saw fit. If we were able to murder a council member we would have broadcasted it on every band and with jubilation declare that we were one step closer to toppling our dictators.'

Colonel Breckenridge didn't believe a word the bastard was saying but he had to keep him talking so that he could think about how to proceed, they were outnumbered and did not have the high ground. 'If it wasn't you who did it then who killed him?'

'It was that lying bastard Victor Sagittar.'

'The Director of the Security Council?' asked the colonel incredulously, of any possible answers this was one he hadn't expected. 'You think that Director Sagittar conspired to murder his fellow council member?'

'Conspired?' scoffed the leader. 'The bastard set the whole thing up, he approached us through an intermediary, he asked us if we would make the hit on the professor.'

'So you did do it?'

'No I refused to do it.' Replied the leader. 'I told him to go fuck himself and that the only time we would kill High Council members if we had the chance, it would have been to assassinate the director, the lord admiral and the high marshall.

'We would have spared Professor Dexter and President Elect Strauss as the former would have been pragmatic in the wake of a successful coup he would have smoothed the way to minimise civilian losses. We would have spared the president elect as she would be malleable, meet the new boss same as the old boss, she would have switched sides in a heartbeat if it meant a third term.'

There was a violent silence in the air the freedom fighters were looking to their leader, what was left of the colonels platoon stood motionless with their weapons at the ready, the freedom fighter leader could see the colonel waver but for only a moment he decided to pounce on it.

'After all how do you think the Old Man knew the exact coordinates of this derelict?' asked the leader rhetorically. 'The local government, the local military and mining companies have no idea that we're here we captured this derelict two decades ago and took it into the heart of this storm where no one could find it. Victor only knew where we were for he sought us out, he already knew where we were. The Security Council know where most of our installations are as they've been supplying us with weapons and materials for decades. If they wanted to wipe us out they could've done it years ago but they keep us around as we serve a purpose.'

'If this is true then why do they keep you around?' Replied the colonel. 'Why would they supply you with weapons, what purpose do you serve?'

'To justify military spending for one.' Retorted their leader, with a sneer. 'We are the boogeymen. You can't justify such a large military without an enemy to fight. You know the president elect is under pressure from the Low Council to downsize the military, therefore an assassination of a High Council member is more than justification for the military. Hell with the traction Professor Dexter's death has had with the public they might even be able to increase spending.

'And that is what this raid is all about too. It isn't just about winning over Professor Byrd it is about winning over the Low Council, you know as well as I do that the president elect has no moral compass. Whoever owns the Low Council owns President Strauss and believe me every bit of pressure on military spending comes from us and special interest groups who want to reintroduce central banking and independent countries.

'We have backers in high places who would love to abolish the USC in order to create their own nation. Victor has been conducting a shadow war for years trying to keep control of the low council. For decades he has been losing his grasp he needed a win, the late professor was liked the most and would be the most missed he was the perfect candidate to bring the low council back into the fold.'

'So he came to you for the job?'

'Yeah.' Replied their leader. 'He figured we would jump at the chance to kill a council member. We take his weapons as it furthers our own ends but we would not follow the orders from the establishment we are trying to topple, we sent our reply then killed the operative. We told Victor that we are freedom fighters not his lackeys.'

'Freedom fighters?' mocked the colonel, with harsh chuckle leaving his helmets speakers. He was swayed by what their leader told him, it did resonate and if he lived he would look into it but it didn't change the current situation this bastard had to die. 'Men like you were the ruin of Earth before the unification, picking up weapons, killing innocent people and attempting to enslave the masses, all in the name of freedom. From the largest country to the smallest, the people were enslaved the human race is now free of such tyrants you and the rest of your men are toxic.'

'Toxic or not we will win through we will carve out our own empire.'

'Over my dead body.' Growled Colonel Breckenridge through gritted teeth, levelling his weapon at the leader.

'Well, that will be arranged.' Replied the raider's leader, while turning around and making to walk away. 'Kill them all.'

Assault rifle fire rang out through the air, breaking reinforced glass plates in the domed ceiling. The weapons fire hit the raider's leader first, tearing his head from his shoulders in a vast welter of blood and red mist. This momentary distraction startled the raiders into inaction, the sight of the headless corpse of their leader falling to the floor unmanned some of the raiders they sought to fleet the dome. Their movement started the engagement proper, the kill team made them pay for their hesitation they opened up at point blank range.

Colonel Breckenridge focussed more out of reflex than intention to where the first shots had originated from. Falling through the dome was Captain Garland his combat suit visibly damaged and blackened from the lightning strike but evidently his propulsion system was operational. The captain was still blazing his weapon at the enemy, he smashed through another reinforced glass plate and into the midst of the raiders. The next few moments passed at a frenetic pace.

Colonel Breckenridge opened fire at a gaggle of raiders taking them out in a matter of seconds, he then dove over an operations console and into cover as grenades were detonated mere feet away from him. Tortured screams could be heard as they detonated, sounds of close combat fighting echoed off the remaining glass plates. It was chaos the colonel rose to his feet to peer out over the workstation he was using as cover, two raiders were leant over the station using it to steady their aim.

They both swung their rifles on the colonel but the first raiders head left his shoulders and his neck was blown out by a stray round, the second raider the colonel shot in the chest. Colonel Breckenridge leapt onto the work station nearly slipping on the blood of his victim, he would use the elevated position to gain fire superiority but his blood ran cold when he heard a call from Acting Captain Harrison.

'Flamethrower!'

Colonel Breckenridge snapped his head back to where the shout had come from, as he did so he found himself staring at a raider with a flamer unit pointed directly at him the end of its nozzle licking with flames. The colonel froze, he knew his inaction had cost him his life.

Whether it was a shot from a raider or a member of his own team it did not matter, a round hit the propellant tank of the raider with the flamethrower. The resulting blast engulfed the raider and blew Colonel Breckenridge from his feet, throwing him back over the workstation, he landed hard on the decking the wind was knocked out of him.

There was searing pain on the left side of his face, he realised that he could feel a breeze stinging his burnt face the blast must have ruptured his helmet. The colonel felt boots on the deck near him, the raiders would finish him off, a shadow stood astride him then his world went black.

After what seemed to feel like an eternity, Colonel Breckenridge opened his eyes, but instead of the green hue of his helmet he could see the colours of the world around him. The searing pain against the left side of his face had been soothed. As he reached to touch it a firm grip held his hand down, 'Colonel, you have extensive burns to your face, you need to let it heal.'

Colonel Breckenridge shrugged off the arm and sat up, pain burned through his torso and limbs, he had taken a hell of a beating but he was alive. The floor banked sharply and he was nearly rolled over, it was only then that he realised that he was aboard the assault craft.

'I would like to be debriefed.' Stated the colonel, while casting his gaze around the cargo hold, noticed there were some _Jackals_ missing and even fewer _Vultures_ were aboard than had made the drop. 'What happened after I blacked out?'

'We won the fire fight.' Replied Captain Garland. 'Though at a heavy cost from our flight excluding you eight _Jackals_ and only five _Vultures_ made it out, worryingly both sergeants were killed.'

'How about the rest of the _Scavengers_?' asked Colonel Breckenridge, a knot tightened in his stomach as he feared the worst.

'By all accounts they got off better.' Replied Captain Garland. 'They took fortified positions then gave the raiders a bloody nose, the lad made it, he is with the pilot checking casualty reports with the other assault crafts. He has took to command well I would recommend him for a brevet rank to take charge of one of the squads I would recommend the _Vultures_ they will need a strong leader after the beating they took or even use him as my XO.'

'I intend to do just that as soon as we get back to barracks on Gertrude.' Replied the Colonel, he touched his face ignoring the look he received from his captain, pain seared as soon as he did so. 'Was it you who got me out?'

Captain Garland shook his head. 'No it was the lad, Captain Harrison put out the flames on you then stood over your body until the fighting was over.'

'The derelict is destroyed?'

'It will be soon' replied Captain Garland. 'Once we took control we turned off the engines and destroyed the controls.'

Acting Captain Harrison entered the hold, he headed directly for his superiors.

'What's the damage, lad?' asked Colonel Breckenridge, fearing the answer.

'Their casualties are lighter than the ones we took.' Replied Captain Harrison. 'The Lions lost one and one wounded, the Leopards lost two with one wounded. The Hyenas lost one and four wounded, the Wolves lost two. The Wolverines lost three dead no wounded, the Cheetahs lost one, the Wild dogs lost their sergeant and the Crows came out completely unscathed.'

'Eighteen dead I will mourn them dearly but it could have been worse.' Stated Colonel Breckenridge, forcing a smile as much as he was able with his burns. Inside he wanted to cry, he needed to change the subject. 'I believe I owe you a debt, well done lad.'

'You owe me nothing, colonel.' Replied Captain Harrison. 'It was you who gave me the confidence to do what I did.'

'I thank you all the same.' Replied the colonel. 'It will be a step down but when we get back to Gertrude you will take command of the _Vultures_ I need you to build them back up, you will be able to personally choose the replacements from the reserve pool. You will also double as Captain Garland's XO, you will be required to attend briefings and be away from your squad therefore nominate a trooper for corporal to act in your stead when duties call you away.'

'It will be an honour, sir.' Replied soon to be XO Harrison, the colonel could see his chest swell with pride.

'I think.' Stated the colonel. 'That the comments their leader made in the command centre should be kept in the strictest of confidence until such a time I can inform the high marshall.'

Captain Garland said nothing he just nodded, he hadn't been present when the comments were made he had only just heard second hand from the survivors.

'It seems you will get your chance sooner than you think.' Put in the newly elevated XO Harrison.

Colonel Breckenridge tilted his head in confusion. 'Lad?'

'We have already been reassigned.' Stated XO Harrison. 'We are to board the strike cruiser _Hades_ , the rest of the 13th Battalion are already aboard they will be coming too, as are replacements from the reserve pool. We are heading for the systems edge.'

'What kind of shit is that?' Declared Colonel Breckenridge. 'We took eighteen percent casualties; we need to mourn our losses. At the very least we should be rotated off the line for a week.'

'The orders were countersigned by the Old Man himself.' Replied Sergeant Harrison. 'The orders have come directly from the High Marshall. We had better enjoy as much rest as we can whilst we're aboard the strike cruiser. According to the briefing packet we will be reporting to the High Council directly.'

There was no arguing with the Old Man, if Field Marshall Bogdan Horatio Grenfell countersigned an order the Old Guard would obey unquestionably.

'I knew it.' offered Captain Garland, referring to what they spoke about before they struck the derelict. 'It's a big push.'

'Whatever it is it had better not be another goddamned suicide mission.'


	10. Misapprehension

Briefing chamber aboard the USC Inferno

There had been a preliminary meeting aboard the bridge of the Inferno the time was used to smooth ruffled feathers and to ensure that from now on everyone was on the same page. To appease Victor the President Elect had been stripped of every communication device and was barred from being alone or accessing any electronic device at all. To appease the Security Council considering the USC Navy was outgunned all charges against Victor were dropped. To appease High Marshall Hadley, Victor had likewise been stripped of communications equipment and privileges he was forced to leave the leadership of the Security Council to Shadow Admiral Hurley.

Captain Elizabeth Lerida was transferred from the Security Council and joined the Lord Admirals command staff until such a time a suitable posting could be found for her in the USC Navy, as a snub to Victor she kept command of Sigma Five Zero.

Victor attempted to table a motion for the tactical fusion warheads to be removed from the Arkship but he was outvoted. It was decided that Captain Everson was right, the placement of the warheads would keep all parties honest but with their placement, the flotilla was forced to keep to a minimum safe distance in case the fusion warheads were detonated.

The meeting had been short but a detente was reached, the way had been smoothed and from now on the United Solar Council would act as one mind and present a united front as it should have done in the first place. Shockingly it had taken two tactical fusion warheads and a junior Captain from the asteroid breaker fleet to accomplish it.

Now sixteen hours after that meeting every concerned party was represented in a high vaulted briefing chamber adjacent to the bridge of the Inferno, one entire side of the chamber was armourglass open to the stars. In the distance, the ghostly form of the Purest Intent shone under the spotlights of the fleet.

In the chamber, there was the High Council save for Victor as he was receiving medical treatment for his superficial wounds at the hands of Captain Lerida. The shadow admiral was also missing from the meeting as all Security Council personnel were barred from taken a leading role in the operation going forward.

Captain Everson, his XO Jeanette Peterson and Captain Lerida were in attendance, as were the representatives of the 1031st Old Guard Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Aldrich Breckenridge, Captain John Garland and his XO Trevor Harrison. The purpose of the meeting would be to decide how best to proceed with the Purest Intent and how to find out what had befallen her.

The meeting would not begin until Victor arrived along with some special advisors who were en route, Rebecca and Adam had gone to one of the Inferno's embarkation decks to greet them. There were several menials in the chamber at hololith stations ready to play any pics or vids requested.

Colonel Breckenridge felt troubled in truth he had done so since the battle in the derelicts command centre. The words of the Freedom Fighters dead leader played on his mind constantly as much as he tried to shake the feeling that they made perfect sense. The President Elect had tried to downsize the military for years, in the last few months with the almost routine leaks on spending, her movement seemed to be gaining traction with the public.

It would stand to reason that if Victor risked losing his own personal army he would manufacture a reason to keep it. Colonel Breckenridge felt sick to his stomach if this was true then over the years he had lost loyal brothers and sisters in battle and for what to justify military spending? Colonel Breckenridge desperately wanted to discuss it with the High Marshall but under the current circumstances, he decided to bide his time.

The Lord Admiral and High Marshall made their way over to him and his men.

'That's quite a wound you have there.' Said the Lord Admiral noticing the burn wound to his face.

'I don't mind pain, Lord Admiral.' Replied the Colonel. 'It means I am still breathing.'

'I've read your after action report.' Stated the High Marshall, he looked genuinely saddened. 'All things considered eighteen dead isn't too bad for a suicide mission but I know it doesn't make it any easier making it out when they didn't.'

There was a moment of silence and mutual respect for their fallen brethren, despite what anyone may think of the High Marshall he was military through and through, he had the utmost respect and love for those in the armed forces and the navy.

'I am glad you got the bastards.' Stated the High Marshall. 'At least someone paid for what they did to Professor Dexter.'

There was an awkward moment as the Colonel relived what the freedom fighter leader said before the firefight. It wasn't the best of times to ask anything considering what they were here to do but he didn't know when the next time he would be in the presence of the High Marshall.

The High Marshall saw the Colonel's discomfort. 'What is it?'

Colonel Breckenridge sighed, he didn't know what to say so he settled for. 'Before the firefight in the control room, I spoke with their leader.'

The conversation was cut off as the briefing rooms blast doors slid open with a hiss and whirr of motors. Victor's two operatives Rebecca and Adam entered, they were escorting two men into the chamber. They were both hooded and handcuffed behind their backs, the first was a small man wearing a floor-length lab coat, the second was a big burly man in a docker's overalls he was built like a bull.

The High Marshall didn't respond to what the Colonel said, instead he mumbled an obscenity under his breath.

'A moment please Colonel Breckenridge.' Stated the High Marshall, then he approached the hooded men. 'Just what in the hell is going on here, who are they?'

'They are civilian specialists.' Replied Adam matter of factly.

'Ah, so they're not animals then?' growled the High Marshall, he gestured to their escorts. 'You and you off with their hoods now.' Rebecca and Adam hesitated until the High Marshall roared. 'Do it now!'

Rebecca took the smaller man's hood off first he was a meek man he looked almost mouse-like, Adam made the mistake of un-cuffing the burly man first. The man ripped off his own hood with his left hand then sent a thundering right cross against the jaw of the first person he saw. Adam went down with a heavy thud as he sprayed his attacker with blood from his burst lips.

Out of reflex, Rebecca drew her sidearm, the small man ducked for cover with a shriek. The bull of a man roared in anger he looked set to charge Rebecca until he caught sight of what was behind her through the giant armourglass window the fore of the Purest Intent was staring back at him.

All fight went out of the burly man as he struggled to come to terms with what he was seeing. 'What is she doing back here?'

'You know who she is?' asked High Marshall Hadley.

'I ought to my family built her.' Grunted the burly man, he then started in surprise when he realised who he was talking to. 'High Marshall Hadley, what is the High Council doing here and for that matter what am I doing here?'

'We will get to that.' Assured the High Marshall. 'You said your family built her?'

The man took a look at the Purest Intent then back to the High Marshall. 'I am Chief Dockmaster Harold Brodie, I own the controlling share of Brodie and Sons Jovian Dockyards.' The chief gestured to the Arkship. 'My great-grandfather Archibald Brodie designed and built her she is the Arkship, the Purest Intent.'

'Well, it seems the Security Council did something right in securing your support.' Stated the High Marshall.

'Is that what they call it?' asked Chief Brodie, laughing mirthlessly. 'I call it being set upon in the dark in my office.' The chief then pointed to the prone Adam on the floor. 'I am sorry about punching your man.'

'That sneaky son of a bitch isn't one of mine he is a spook.' Replied the High Marshall, while looking down to Adam who began to stir. 'And don't be sorry they've treated you like crap.' The High Marshall then looked at the smaller man who looked ashen. 'Then who might you be?'

'I am Professor Donald Harvey.' Managed the man, he was trembling. 'I am a naval historian I specialise in the history of the Purest Intent.'

'Then I sincerely hope you both can shed some light on what happened to her.' Put in, Lord Admiral Dante. 'We are at a loss for how or why she is back here, as for the how we suspect she was losing power and built up enough inertia before losing all power to make it back to Earth.'

'Had she been travelling with her vertex angle to the fore then I would agree with you.' Replied Chief Brodie. 'With her travelling backwards the manoeuvre would be all but impossible. In fact, I know it to be impossible as the Purest Intent has no drives to her fore or amidships and her flanks only have navigation thrusters, nothing powerful enough to propel the vessel to the speed she is travelling at.

'That also rules out any kind of slingshot manoeuvre first of all the crew would have had to find an exoplanet or mass large enough to complete the manoeuvre. Not just that she couldn't have swung about to be backwards, the thrusters wouldn't have had enough power to correct the spin if that was the case the Purest Intent would be spinning. If they had of run silent on inertia alone she would be travelling forwards, no I cannot account for her travelling backwards.'

'We will shelve the how for now.' Put the High Marshall. 'What about why would they be back here, why would the ship return to Sol at all?'

'They wouldn't have.' Stated Professor Harvey, the naval historian. 'Not even unwillingly not while Robert Polson presided over their governmental structure, he hated the fledgeling colonies and the United Earth Council even more so. It was Robert Polson's stipulation that each colonist publicly renounce their citizenship to the solar system upon leaving for Proxima Centauri.'

'Then it could be civil insurrection.' Said High Marshall Hadley. 'Perhaps a part way into their journey a new faction formed that didn't wish to proceed and wanted to turn back.'

'Everything is in the realms of possibility.' Replied Professor Harvey. 'But civil insurrection as the deciding factor as to why the Purest Intent turned back is unlikely. Robert Polson went to great lengths to ensure that those who joined were suited to their undertaking he was present through every screening, interview and psychometric test. That they might turn on him en masse is highly unlikely unless some external factor forced their hand.'

'They were halfway into their journey.' Persisted High Marshall Hadley. 'An entire new generation could have formed, a new generation brought up on an Arkship who didn't choose to be there perhaps they didn't want to go to Proxima Centauri.'

'You are labouring under a misapprehension here.' Stated Chief Brodie, he was looking at the Arkship intently he then turned to address the assemblage. 'You are forgetting one thing the Purest Intent left one hundred and fifty seven years ago on a three hundred year voyage but that doesn't mean they were halfway there when she got hit.'

'The Purest Intent is travelling at a drastically reduced speed compared to her maximum velocity, meaning that whatever befouled her did not happen out there midpoint to Proxima Centauri and Sol. Whatever happened to the Purest Intent went down practically on our systems door step.'

'My god he is right.' Exclaimed Professor Byrd. 'We've been too preoccupied with why it is back here that we didn't stop to think when it happened, Lord Admiral, I think it is time to show them the damage we found.'

Lord Admiral Dante nodded he then relayed orders to his bridge crew for the Inferno to approach the port side of the Purest Intent, as soon as Chief Brodie saw the Arkship's flank he looked ashen.

The chief closed with the armourglass he pressed his palm against the glass as if he was actually touching the ancient flanks of the Arkship. 'We are in a whole lot of trouble, aliens did this.'


	11. The Unknown Mass

Briefing chamber about the USC Inferno

There was a dead silence hang in the air everyone save for Professor Harvey already suspected that aliens did this to the Purest Intent but to have the foremost authority on the Arkship's construction say it out loud was a sobering few moments. They all stood there looking at the ghost ship in the distance with three colossal holes blown into her flanks.

'How do you come to that conclusion, Chief Brodie?' asked Professor Byrd.

'Those holes there, professor.' Pointed the chief, to the ghost ship. 'Those holes were created by something we aren't capable of doing not us and not the colonists that left the solar system, that warping it defies explanation it defies our understanding of physics.'

'In your mind, this definitely couldn't be civil insurrection?' pressed Professor Byrd.

'Not with that weapons damage like I said we cannot manufacture weapons that do that.' Replied Chief Brodie, he pointed again at the holes in the flanks. 'We are dealing with not only a highly technologically advanced adversary, we are dealing with a strategically capable adversary.

'They hit the Purest Intent with a surgical strike, whoever attacked her struck her sensorium to the fore and her reactors to her aft. They left her blind and un-manoeuvrable, the damage to her amidships is beyond me as there is nothing worth hitting there perhaps they struck there to aid a boarding action.'

'If I may.' Interrupted Captain Everson the commander of the Southsea Castle, he shared a worried look with his XO. 'Chief Brodie the hole amidships what was in there?'

The chief shrugged. 'Nothing of any real significance there are massive parkland domes in the centre, big empty spaces nothing to worry about.'

'Then I think we need to start worrying.' Replied Captain Everson. 'While we were waiting for the Security Council I ordered the Southsea Castle to scan the Arkship. We didn't find empty spaces, what we found was a solid mass nearly two kilometres in length. Most of the masses makeup could not be categorised by our sensors.'

'What the hell is that supposed to mean?' asked the High Marshall.

'It means that whatever the mass is.' Stated Professor Byrd looking worried. 'It's makeup isn't known to our periodic table, meaning it is likely from outside the solar system.'

With the light of recognition in his eyes, the High Marshall looked to the Arkship. 'There is something alien in there.'

'I think we are getting ahead of ourselves.' Stated Victor, as he closed with the gathering his uniform was bloodstained from the actions of Captain Lerida. 'There could be all manner of reasons for the readings, your sensors could have gone awry when dealing with a void in a starship. After all your gear isn't calibrated for man-made constructions are they?'

'No.' admitted the Captain, begrudgingly. 'But the section of the ship in question is all empty space our gear can't just conjure up a mass that big there might be false returns but nothing like that, the gear scans what's in there and returns the data it's that simple.'

'We will have to agree to disagree.' Stated Victor. 'Even if there is a mass in there it doesn't mean its alien.'

'Or it could mean that it is alien.' Put in Professor Byrd. 'It's a solid mass where parklands should be, there could be extraterrestrials in the Purest Intent using the Arkship as a Trojan Horse.'

'In your opinion, you believe there could be extraterrestrials in there?' asked Lord Admiral Dante, for clarification.

'In my opinion, if the mass is of alien origin it is likely to be a Von Neumann probe.' Stated Professor Byrd. 'That was what the oversight committee concerning First Contact always theorised would be the most likely vehicle for finding intelligent species in the galaxy.'

'A Von Neumann probe?' asked High Marshall Hadley.

'A Von Neumann probe is a theorised self-replicating spacecraft.' Replied Professor Byrd. 'That would be created by an intelligent race to explore the galaxy more efficiently than if they sent out manned probes.

'A Von Neumann probe could be given a mission to seek out intelligent life in the galaxy, by this method of self-replication these probes could explore the entire galaxy in five hundred thousand years.'

'But aren't Von Neumann probes meant to be benign?' asked Lord Admiral Dante. 'That they would be used solely for space exploration, the Purest Intent was attacked.'

'A Von Neumann probe has been primarily theorised as a tool for space exploration.' Agreed Professor Byrd. 'Another variation of a space probe is a Bracewell probe created to communicate with newfound sentient life to conduct First Contact.

'Then there is yet another variation of a space probe commonly referred to as a Berserker, these probes could be created to seek out and exterminate all sentient life that is found.

'That this type of probe may have been created by a xenophobic race or could have mutated from a benign Von Neumann probe. I concede that these are just theories but we have to take them seriously considering the damage done to the Purest Intent.

'Not just that if Chief Brodie is right and the evidence suggests that he is that the Arkship was attacked on our systems doorstep then it means that the aggressor was already near to Sol.

'The close proximity suggests that they were already aware of the human race and were already en route when they came into contact with the Purest Intent. The catastrophic damage done to the Arkship could mean one of two things.

'Either it was a peaceful First Contact gone awry which resulted in violence or whoever or whatever attacked the Purest Intent had violence on its mind in the first place and the Arkship was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

'If it was already coming here how did they find us?' asked High Marshall Hadley. 'We have been looking for alien life for centuries and found nothing how come they detected us?'

'We've been detectable for centuries.' Replied Professor Byrd. 'The first radio signals were sent in 1900, they have reached hundreds of light years from Earth and our first TV signals have reached over a hundred light years from Earth.

'We might not have been looking for the right things, unfortunately, an extraterrestrial race is always likely to be lightyears more advanced than us they could have dozens of probes in our stellar neighbourhood alone that detected our signals and rerouted to investigate our territory.'

'Or we could be in their territory.' Suggested Captain Everson, commander of the Southsea Castle, his input raised more than a few eyebrows.

'Excuse me?' asked High Marshall Hadley.

'We could be in their territory.' Repeated Captain Everson. 'Think about it homo sapiens only evolved from our common ancestors two hundred thousand years ago, true civilisations only began six thousand years ago and industrialisation only started in 1800.

'All of that is just a blink in the eye compared to the age of the cosmos. Who's to say that we aren't in the middle of an interstellar empire of some extraterrestrial race?'

'This is preposterous.' Chided Victor.

'Is it really though?' persisted Captain Everson. 'What if an extraterrestrial civilisation came across Sol when the human race was in its infancy or hundreds of thousands of years before that or even millions of years ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

'Perhaps our system was claimed long ago by aliens who deemed life on our little blue planet to be beneath their notice. We like to think that we are important but we could be no more to an alien than an ape is to us, just some wild beast that is no threat that inhabits a small part of their territory.'

'If your theory stands up.' Put in High Marshall Hadley, there were several concerned looks now, everyone save for Victor was taking Captain Everson's opinion seriously. 'If we are beneath their notice living in their territory then why attack us now?'

Captain Everson paused not for dramatic effect or because he had run out of arguments, he paused because he was worried in case he was right.

'Captain?' asked the High Marshall.

'Perhaps there are Berserker probes anchored off the Oort Cloud.' Stated Captain Everson. 'Perhaps an alien civilisation claimed our system aeons ago and left it unmolested but left Berserker probes here as insurance in case anything evolved to challenge their supremacy. Perhaps the voyage of the Purest Intent awoke a hibernating Berserker probe after detecting the Arkship.

'Perhaps it murdered the crew of the Purest Intent and destroyed her escorts as an automated response to detecting alien sentient life and now it is using our own ship as camouflage to assess the capability of the system's inhabitants before it makes its next move.

'To either exterminate us itself or to send a warning home or to its nearest outpost. Considering this fact and the fact that we are finding this out decades after the Purest Intent was attacked could mean a warning has already been sent and there could be an armada bearing down on us even now.'

'As much as it scares me to agree.' Said Chief Brodie. 'I think there is something of unknown origin in the Arkship. I don't know if it is a probe if it is an alien or god has come himself for the second coming but what I do know is that the Purest Intent cannot be back here under her own propulsion not under these circumstances, therefore, something else brought her back.'

'I think we have spent too much time in the realms of science fiction.' Cut in Victor, snidely. 'There isn't an armada out there, there are no aliens if there was we would have seen them coming.'

'Just like how we saw the Purest Intent coming?' scoffed Professor Byrd.

'That is entirely different the Purest Intent is drifting dead in space.' Replied Victor.

'Then who's to say that an armada wouldn't think to do that also?' asked Professor Byrd.

Victor didn't offer a reply instead changed the subject. 'The Purest Intent is hurtling towards the outer colonies, stopping her should be our first priority instead of this conjecture.

'The Arkship needs to be halted before anyone not under our sphere of influence sees her, we need to stop her then hide her. Then and only then can we waste time on half-baked theories as to why she is back here.'

'We don't even know if that is possible.' Stated Professor Byrd, he looked to Chief Brodie. 'Can you stop her?'

'Not without boarding her and trying to reactivate her reactors.' Replied the chief. 'That or bringing in heavy gear from Jovian territory but the last time it was attempted on such a large vessel was when the White Starliner Titanica was hijacked by terrorists.

'Well, I don't think that is a fair example considering the terrorists destroyed the gear before it could be used. But all the same its movement would raise eyebrows the use of such equipment is usually preceded by a media story, journalists would follow the gear all the way to the edge of the system. '

'There has to be a way.' Put in High Marshall Hadley. 'Can't we just attach tow cables to halt her?'

The chief shook his head. 'She is travelling at the speed of a comet, even if a larger vessel could be retrofitted with cables and match speed the forces doled out it would snap the cables or worse it could tear the ship in two or perhaps both vessels.'

'Wait a second.' Stated Lord Admiral Dante. 'Chief you said the only way to stop her is to board her and start her reactors, she has been holed through her reactors have been atomised there is nothing left to start.'

'Yes, the Arkship's reactor has been holed through and blown to hell.' The chief closed with the armourglass, he gestured to the Purest Intent. 'The term Arkship has been used in the newsreels for so long that the name has become synonymous with the Purest Intent but it doesn't fully describe her.

'What we see is one vessel but she isn't a single vessel she is, in fact, three vessels. Topside is the Arkship that was to be used as living quarters for the colonists during their three century voyage.

'Then there is the colonisation vessel underneath which housed seeding, terraforming and construction gear. There is also a smaller vessel with the capacity to house a few thousand people, this was their means of escape in the event of a catastrophic disaster.'

'You mean to say that there are potentially two more viable reactors in there?' asked the Lord Admiral.

'Yes, sir.' Replied the chief. 'But the only chance to activate them will be to board her through the damage to the Arkship's aft.

'It would be too risky to board her via conventional military boarding methods as we would risk ship quakes using such brute force tactics. Once inside there are hatches between the two ships that pass between the inner and outer hulls.'

'Then that could be how the Purest Intent got back?' suggested High Marshall Hadley.

'No the Arkship cannot be travelling backwards not by conventional means.' Stated the Dockmaster. 'As I said earlier such a manoeuvre would leave the Purest Intent spinning, she is travelling backwards perfectly something unknown got her back here.'

'Then it is decided we have to go in.' declared High Marshall Hadley. 'The decision is made for us we have to uncover what befouled the Purest Intent and we have to do it quickly.'

'If it is to be done this way.' Stated Victor. 'To preserve evidence and security it should be my operatives that go in alone.'

'Can they start or fix a one hundred fifty seven year old reactor?' asked the chief mirthlessly.

'Your operatives are not going anywhere near the Purest Intent.' Stated Lord Admiral Dante, before the High Marshall could launch into a tirade. 'Your handling of this situation up to now has been despicable, you have proven that you cannot be trusted.

'You and your operatives will have a role but it will be purely advisory as per your agreement is that clear?'

Victor looked set to go against his word but he evidently thought better of it. 'Crystal clear, Lord Admiral.'

'Then it is settled.' Said the High Marshall. 'We go in and restart her reactor.'

'Surely we shouldn't forget about the mass.' Put in the professor. 'I still think a recon party should be the first to go in to investigate the mass after all that is our biggest concern.'

'We still don't know what happened to her.' Put in the President Elect. 'Surely that should be the priority, find the bridge and inspect the Captain's files.'

And so the conversation devolved into bickering of who was most right and what should be done first.

That was until the High Marshall let out a slow chuckle that got the attention of the assemblage. 'How about we ask someone who knows a little something about what they're talking about, Colonel Breckenridge your assessment?'

'All three of you are right.' Stated the Colonel. 'We need to investigate the mass, restart the reactors and find out what the Captain and crew knew.'

'But which will you do first?' asked President Elect Strauss.

'We will do all three at once, President Elect Strauss.' Replied Colonel Breckenridge, with no hubris attached to his statement. 'I will take in the entire battalion split into two expeditions a small force under XO Trevor Harrison will make entry to her fore and investigate the bridge.

'The remainder of the battalion under my command will restart one of the reactors and investigate the mass. Now specialists will be a major advantage in both tasks, we cannot guarantee your safety but the help of Chief Dockmaster Brodie and Professor Harvey would be a major asset on the inside.'

'You got it.' Said Chief Brodie without skipping a beat, he turned to the Lord Admiral. 'Although I will need to pillage your stores for equipment, I was forced to leave mine at home.'

'You will have access to anything you need.' Replied the Lord Admiral, he turned to Professor Harvey. 'Are you prepared to go in?'

'Not in the slightest.' Managed the professor, trying to laugh off his unease. 'But I have learned everything there is to know about the Purest Intent and those who sailed upon her, it makes sense to put it to good use I am at your disposal.'

'I applaud your bravery.' Said Colonel Breckenridge, he knew the man was scared stiff but still doing it anyway that was true bravery. 'You will be in the expedition with XO Harrison to search the bridge you will be invaluable in this task.'

'Then it is settled the Old Guard goes in.' declared the High Marshall, he looked to Colonel Breckenridge. 'What do you need?'

'Intel for a start.' Said the Colonel, he looked to Chief Brodie. 'What kind of situation can we expect in there will there be gravity in there?'

'With the Purest Intent being dead in space her gravity drive will be offline.' Stated Chief Breckenridge. 'Given the Arkship's sheer size and mass, there will be some gravity in there obviously not Earth-normal but enough to move around.'

'Very well we will use magnetic boots to simulate Earth-normal.' Replied the Colonel. 'What about her superstructure how badly beaten up will she be?'

The chief shrugged. 'I couldn't possibly guess but if the rest of her is as torn up as those chasms then negotiating her decks might be a nightmare or they could be in one piece.'

'I suppose we shall just have to go in and find out.' Replied the Colonel.

'Right we have a cause of action.' Stated High Marshall Hadley. 'How soon until the expeditions can be made ready to go in?'

'As far as the Old Guard goes within a few hours.' Replied the Colonel, he then looked to the dockmaster. 'Chief?'

'I will have to try and familiarise myself with her layout from memory.' Replied the chief. 'If I had the time before I was snatched I could have brought my files and schematics.'

'That won't be necessary.' Cut in Victor, with a wicked smile. 'My operatives appropriated anything and everything of interest concerning the Purest Intent from the homes and offices of yourself and Professor Harvey.'

'You took everything?' demanded the chief, Victor inclined his head as an affirmation. 'Then you've taken the letter. It had better not have been opened or so help me I will brain you, I want that letter back and I want it back right now.'

'What letter?' asked the High Marshall.

'There was a letter in a wax sealed vellum envelope.' Replied the chief. 'It was in a wall safe in my office and I want it back.'

'Victor.' Glowered the High Marshall.

'I will have it returned to the dockmaster at the earliest convenience.' Replied Victor while smiling. 'What is the significance of the letter?'

'None of your god damned business.' Growled the dockmaster.

'I will make sure you get it back.' Promised High Marshall Hadley, while throwing Victor a baleful stare. 'How long until you will be able to deploy?'

'With the schematics here.' Replied Chief Brodie, he took one last look with the Arkship. 'I will be ready as soon as the Old Guard wish to deploy.'

'Before you deploy we need to think about First Contact.' stated Lord Admiral Dante. 'If the mass is of alien origin whether it is a Bracewell probe designed to communicate or there are extraterrestrials in there. How would we proceed in trying to make peaceable contact?'

'We will have to deal with the situation as it arises.' Stated Colonel Breckenridge.

'You mean make it up as you go along?' scorned President Elect Strauss.

'Yes, President Elect.' Replied the Colonel without batting an eyelid. 'We have no idea what is in there, if there is a ship in there we don't know if it is of alien origin.

'If there are aliens in there we have absolutely no idea what they would be like or how they might communicate so yes without knowing what they are like we will have to make it up as we go along.'

'Exactly we don't know what they would be like.' Countered the President Elect. 'So do you want their first impression of us to be soldiers with their guns drawn?'

'What else should we do send you in?' sneered the High Marshall. 'One look at you they would invade. What you fail to see President Elect Strauss is that this is not their first impression of us, is it? They've met us before.' The High Marshall gestured to the ghost ship. 'And look how that went, we may well be at war already and if we are they need to know that we won't be found wanting.

'A military response is the only logical response. If there are aliens in there they should be intelligent enough to know we would take umbrage to the treatment of the colonist's vessel and the fact that they've attempted to infiltrate our system.'

'If there are aliens in there.' Said Professor Byrd. 'And First Contact becomes a reality it is not our responsibility to make sure it goes right, it is our responsibility to just keep our heads.'

'How do you come to that conclusion?' asked President Elect Strauss.

'Like Captain Everson said.' Continued Professor Byrd. 'We have been detectable via radio and television signals for centuries any extraterrestrial race has no business visiting another sentient race without knowing their language and customs.

'We have been inadvertently sending out our language and customs for centuries so if an alien comes here they should already know about us.' The professor gestured to the Purest Intent. 'Which makes the damage to the Arkship all the more troubling, if they do know about us and attacked us on first meeting then perhaps they never had peaceful intentions for us in the first place.'


	12. The Last Gasp

Aboard Colonel Breckenridge's Thunderhead Boarding Craft heading into the Arkship

On the bridge of the Thunderhead Assault Boarding Craft that they had commandeered from the Inferno's complement was Colonel Breckenridge, Captain Garland and Chief Brodie. Colonel Breckenridge didn't regret placing XO Harrison in command of the 1031st Battalions first company for the duration of the expedition but it meant he was superior to the battalions First Captain Allan Strigmore.

Captain Strigmore protested profusely against being overlooked. XO Harrison had brought this up too, he had gone so far as to ask to be relinquished from command feeling it would be disrespectful to the first Captain. It truly pained Colonel Breckenridge to shoot down Captain Strigmore especially since he couldn't tell him why. Captain Strigmore was more than capable of leading the expedition that wasn't why he had been overlooked.

The reason XO Harrison was in charge was the fact that Victor might have been beaten officially for he wasn't able to act overtly against the Old Guard but he was not out of the game. If Victor was behind the assassination he or Shadow Admiral Hurley may try to pull something off while they were in the Arkship.

The Colonel needed someone who knew what the dead freedom fighter leader said in the command centre of the derelict to command the expedition in case the spooks tried something. After all conducting a secret operation during a secret operation wasn't beyond them, if anything it was something the Security Council wouldn't think twice about attempting.

What made Colonel Breckenridge suspicious was the fact that the Security Council demanded that no cameras or recording equipment could be used by the Old Guard the entire time they were aboard the Purest Intent. This included any video conferencing with the High Council which would have been a supreme asset if things went wrong fast.

The Security Council's logic was sound enough that if there were extraterrestrials aboard they could snoop in on the conference, therefore, giving away their position but Colonel Breckenridge had a sinking feeling that the Security Council were going to try something and were making sure no footage would be captured.

As they closed with the Arkship every one of them including the bridge crew could not tear their eyes away from the gargantuan spacecraft that was the Arkship the Purest Intent. Every one of them struggled to come to terms with the fact that it was actually back here in the solar system and the fact that they were going to board her. There were nine Thunderheads heading aft and XO Harrison's Thunderhead heading to the Arkship's fore.

The boarding crafts had gotten their name as breaching charges capable of blasting through the inner and outer hull of a ship of the line were built into the bow of each craft. Behind the charges were drill heads that would be at home at the coalface. Their purpose was to burrow the Thunderhead into the nearest companionways, they were brute force vessels but none could naysay their effectiveness each Thunderhead carried a single company as well as their supplies and provisions.

Under normal circumstances, Colonel Breckenridge would not tolerate a civilian to accompany them on a military undertaking but the Colonel knew fine well that without Chief Brodie they would have very little chance of succeeding as it was his knowledge which gave them this strategy.

The Colonel felt sorry for XO Harrison as he was lumbered with Professor Harvey the man was nice enough but he reminded the Colonel of a mouse, he was timid and scared of everything he would surely slow down their expedition.

Colonel Breckenridge looked to Chief Brodie, the dockmaster looked ill at ease in his borrowed suit of armour, as well as the unfamiliar assault rifle in his hands but he knew the chief could handle himself he had seen it for himself when he had laid out Adam in one punch.

Colonel Breckenridge's thoughts drifted back to what happened aboard the derelict, he knew he should be worried about the mission at hand and the gravity of the situation but he couldn't shake the feeling of unease about what the freedom fighter leader had told him that Victor had orchestrated the death of the late Professor Timothy Dexter.

A chill went down his spine at the thought of it being true, the way Victor had reacted when he and the High Marshall came to see them off gave credence to the Freedom Fighter leaders wild claims.

Victors reaction had done nothing to dispel his fears if anything Victor's reaction made him even more of a suspect. Colonel Breckenridge thought back to when they were about to make their way to the Thunderhead waiting for them on the embarkation deck. The High Marshall and Victor came to them on the pretext of seeing them off but it turned out the High Marshall had an ulterior motive.

'We have come to see you off.' Said the High Marshall. 'You be safe in there.'

'My thanks, Colonel.' Replied Colonel Breckenridge. 'We will be and we will find out what happened to her.'

'I know you will.' Agreed the High Marshall, he then looked to Victor before saying. 'In the briefing chamber before Chief Brodie and Professor Harvey were brought in hooded and shackled you tried to tell me something.'

Colonel Breckenridge decided to try and play for time. 'Perhaps this should wait until we return after all considering what might be waiting for us on the Purest Intent.'

'That is why I am asking you now, the harsh reality is that worst case scenario you might not make it back so I want to know what you were going to say is that clear, Colonel?'

Colonel Breckenridge was between a rock and a hard place he had been ordered to make his disclosure but could hardly do it now on the cusp of deployment and in front of the very man he was making the accusation against.

Colonel Breckenridge decided to be tactful but hoped he could drop a subtle hint at the same time, before speaking the Colonel looked at Victor with what he hoped was a worried look in his eyes.

'Before the firefight in the derelicts command centre, I spoke to their leader before Captain Garland killed him. Let's just say that their leader had a very interesting take on the assassination of Professor Timothy Dexter but I think that it will have to wait until I return from the Purest Intent.'

The High Marshall caught the Colonel's glance at Victor and scowled at the Director then looked back to the Colonel. 'Very well I am sincerely looking forward to hearing your full report.'

Victor's expression changed from one of confidence to one between a look of concern and then to a look of controlled anger, Victor then grinned his viperous grin. 'As am I, Colonel Breckenridge.'

That had been that and there was little the Colonel could do until he was back aboard the Inferno so he decided to take his own advice that he gave Trevor Harrison aboard the derelict above Uranus before they stormed the control room.

Colonel Breckenridge put such thoughts to one side if they made it back from the Arkship he would worry about it then. Needing to distract himself another thought struck him.

'Chief Brodie.' Stated the Colonel.

'Yes sir?' asked the chief, he still looked ill at ease.

'May I inquire as to what is in that letter Victor had?'

The chief shrugged not an easy task in sealed armour. 'I don't know, Colonel.'

Colonel Breckenridge gave the chief a confused look. 'If you don't know what's in it then why such a visceral reaction?'

'Because of who it is from.' Stated the chief. 'It is from my great grandfather the letter is addressed to his son. It has gone unopened passed down from father to son. There was an oath made that the first of our family able to head for Proxima Centauri would give it to my great-grandfathers living relatives.

'I understand the historical importance of the Arkship being back here and the security implications if aliens are involved but for me, the only reason I am being your guide is to take this letter back to where it came from and to make sure the old bastard is actually dead.'

'Who your great-grandfather?' Asked Captain Garland, incredulously.

'My great-grandfather was Chief Archibald Brodie.' Stated the Dockmaster. 'You might remember him from the newsreels, he oversaw the construction of the Arkship, after she was launched he went with the crew.

'It was in secret no one in the family knew that he was banging his secretary. My great grandfather left my great-grandmother for some young cheap tart, she only found out when he called her from his office an hour before the Purest Intent left.

'Her son, my grandfather rushed to the dockyards to try and dissuade him or beat the crap out of him but he was too late. Inside the wall safe in his office was the sealed envelope, he swore to never open it.

'Not only did he leave my great-grandmother heartbroken, but he left no legitimate successor for the dockyards as he had not filed for a successor. Therefore my grandfather had to go through a power struggle which crippled him financially for decades.

'It was rumoured that he even contemplated suicide, only the sheer hatred of his father saw him through.'

'Could the letter contain the successor details?' asked the Colonel. 'For the dockyards I mean.'

'I doubt it.' Chief Brodie pulled out a slim vellum envelope from the sleeve of his armour. 'Even if he wrote it on a piece of paper it would never have been binding, there are hundreds of documents to complete to make it legal. My grandfather would still have had to fight for his legitimate succession.'

'I don't remember any of this from the newsreels.' Said the Colonel.

'It was kept a family matter.' Replied Chief Brodie, with a bitter smile. 'As much as my grandfather wanted to destroy his father's name he knew it would have lowered the value of the dockyards, rendering fighting for them moot.

'The dockyards were famous for constructing the Arkship, the legal battles were kept out of the public eye to ensure its profitability as it was in the best interest of our competitor's to keep it a secret as well.'

'I wonder what its reappearance will do to stock prices now.' Replied Colonel Breckenridge, while looking out to the rent open flanks of the Arkship.

'That is a very naïve statement from an Old Guard Colonel.' Laughed the Chief. 'The stock prices will be just fine as the spooks will never let the Arkship become public knowledge, plus if it did The Purest Intent made it back here after surviving an attack by aliens that's one hell of an advertisement for durability.'

'You've got me there.' Chuckled the Colonel.

The Thunderhead closed to within half a kilometre of the flank of the Arkship only now could the true extent of the punishment metered out could be appreciated. The hole blown into her aft was more than a kilometre in diameter.

Silence settled as they closed with the Arkship, aboard this Thunderhead were the Scavengers they were to be his personal bodyguard, as well as two technicians from the flagship and two specialised sappers from their reserve pool for forcing entry through bulkheads.

The moment of truth came the Thunderhead was engulfed in the giant gaping maw of the hole blown into the flank of the Arkship, for a moment everything was blackness until the pilot activated floodlights that were dotted at various points of the hull.

The colossal space was illuminated by the stark lights of nine Thunderheads spotlights. The space was surreal it was as if an entire section of the Arkship had just been cut out, for there were no signs of burning or explosions.

The only damage was the warped effect that continued from the hull. The deck plates were like an ocean surface frozen in time as if the entire expanse around the hole were warped with ripples of metal.

'It's beautiful.' Said the chief. 'Like a calm ocean under the moonlight.'

'Beautiful or not we cannot land on the deck.' Stated the pilot. 'With those ripples, I can't begin to imagine what it's done to the structural integrity of the deck. If we set down we might create stress fractures, the whole deck could go if all nine Thunderheads set down. We will hover then set down the landing ramps only.'

'Very well.' Replied the Colonel, he looked at the chief. 'Which side of the chasm?'

'Portside.' Said the chief. 'It will lead further into the vessel, starboard is the Arkship's engines there won't be anything viable there. Pick any deck large enough to set down there are grand staircases that lead to all decks.'

'Portside it is.' Stated the pilot, she looked at the Colonel. 'You better head down we are landing soon, we will hover to cover you until you get into the Purest Intent proper.'

Colonel Breckenridge led his command squad down into the massive hold, in it were his squads of Scavengers the team of technicians, also into the hold were two massive truck-like vehicles which ambulated via tracks, the Old Guard referred to them as Pachyderms. The Pachyderm was a semi-sentient multi-role support vehicle the size of a tank, the pachyderm was permitted as unlike a drone it was independent in terms of outside infiltration and hacking making them safe to use –they could also act out orders independently away from the command structure if so required.

In this undertaking, the first pachyderm carried ration supplies, weapons and ammunition, equipment for the technicians and sappers heavy machinery and explosives. There were dorsal mounted weapons for protecting the expedition as well as front-mounted dozen blades for clearing debris. The second carried more of the same but other specialist equipment Chief Brodie had insisted on taking with them. Every squad save for the Hyenas went on foot, the Hyenas utilised scout bikes but the rest of the Old Guard could ride upon the pachyderms to save on shoe leather.

'The Thunderhead will not set down.' Bellowed Colonel Breckenridge. 'When the ramp opens I want the Hyenas to scout out a perimeter and the Leopards to reinforce their advance. Everyone else is to stay by the pachyderms until we know if it is safe for us to move further forward. The Thunderhead will hover on station until I give the all clear, I want a clean dispersal the civilians are to stay close to me at all times.'

The Thunderhead lurched sideways while dropping suddenly then the hold opened, the Hyenas already on their bikes flung themselves from the bay even before it was fully open.

There was only a subsonic whine from them as they were powered by micro-fusion generators. As the ramp set down the Leopards and Lions ran down the ramp, the former surging after the bikers and the latter splitting into two fire teams taking up flanking positions on the wings.

The greater portion of the recon team left the hold of the Thunderhead followed by the trundling behemoths that were two pachyderms then the Jackals brought up the rear. The Thunderhead closed the debarkation ramp then hovered over the expeditionary force it would stay on station until they moved on. To their flanks, the remaining eight Thunderheads were doing the same disgorging their troopers and pachyderms.

The scene before Colonel Breckenridge was surreal as there were undulating hills of metal disappearing into the darkness he opened a channel to Chief Brodie. 'Aside from the warped deck plates there doesn't seem to be any damage.'

'Looking at it up close.' Replied the chief. 'It looks like a large scale energy weapon was used against her, it looks like it was fired in waves hence the undulating warping effect. Every external bulkhead and interior door have sensors that would seal every internal and external door automatically.

'Especially since we are where the reactors stood, the blast doors are thicker here to contain radiation. Whatever happened here the rest of the vessel should be as it was but that will be confirmed when we reach the blast doors.'

The conversation was cut off by the Sergeant of the Hyenas. 'There is good news and bad news, sirs, the bad news we have found our way blocked by a massive blast door. The good news is that there is no warping effect on the decks here.'

'Just as I had hoped.' Said Chief Brodie speaking on the command channel, gesturing to where the Hyenas were lost in the darkness. 'We can use that blast door to gain entry into the rest of the ship.'

'There won't be any power to the doors.' replied Colonel Breckenridge. 'But what about explosive decompression? We would be blown out into space if there is viable air pressure in there.'

Chief Brodie spoke with what the Colonel could only assume was a smile on the burly Dockmaster's face. 'I have brought dozens of power cells that should be able to be used to open the blast doors we need to get through, also aboard the pachyderms are airlocks that can be used to safely gain entry in the event that there is viable atmosphere in there.'

Colonel Breckenridge patted the chief on his shoulder guard. 'You've thought of everything.' He then opened a channel to the Hyenas Sergeant. 'Stay on station we are coming to you.'

It took them fifteen minutes to catch up with the Hyenas, it took a further two hours to construct the airlock which was large enough for the nine companies including the pachyderms to enter unimpeded. They were now in the airlock which the technicians had sealed, they had yet to equalise the pressure and turn on the oxy-generation units.

'Why aren't the oxygen generators turned on?' asked the Colonel, picking up on this.

'As we don't know what kind of state the pressure is in on the other side.' Replied Chief Brodie. 'There may be no pressure on the other side, the technicians will open the door a millimetre to gauge the state of pressure. It will give us enough of an indication without putting us at too much risk.'

One of the technicians came to the blast door and fed wires from the airlock to the blast door, the airlocks power plant would provide just enough power to operate the door. Then the technician set up oxygen sensors by the door, after finishing his labours he turned to the Colonel for orders.

Colonel Breckenridge inclined his head in the chief's direction. 'The honour is yours.'

'The last gasp.' Whispered Chief Brodie, he took in a deep breath then gestured to the technician. 'Do it.'

The technician operated the keypad there was a subsonic whine of power then a heavy creak, the blast door barely moved but there was an explosive gust of wind emanating from the blast door that knocked several men from their feet. The technician's reflexes saved them from any injuries, he closed the door sealing the bulkhead once more.

The technician breathlessly said. 'There is oxygen in there.'

'That's good isn't it?' asked the Colonel. 'There could be survivors.'

'There are two explanations that spring to mind.' Replied Chief Brodie. 'The good explanation is that there are survivors and their comms and power has just recently failed hence the power outages. The bad and most likely explanation is that this part of the ship was sealed during the disaster and we have just let out the oxygen that was stored there.'

'Semper Maxime Exspecto.' Replied Colonel Breckenridge, he smiled behind his visor at the chiefs confusion. 'It is the Old Guard motto "Always expect the worst." The Colonel then switched to an expedition wide channel. 'Civilians are to shelter behind the pachyderms, technicians are to equalize the air pressure then open the blast doors. As soon as those doors are open the Hyenas head in then we all follow and secure the area.'

The squads got into position with their weapons pointed to the door, the Hyenas brought their bikes to full power ready to storm the blast door. There was the thrum of power as the air pressure equalized then the blast doors began to open. Even before it was fully open the Old Guard stormed through the blast door they charged into the unknown.

The nine companies charged through the blast door they spread out into an attack formation, they emerged into a colossal chamber with machines and pipes everywhere, it was a sterile silvered environment with absolutely no indication of what had befouled her –there was also no signs of life or death.

'Where are we chief?' asked the Colonel.

'This is one of the ancillary chambers that housed machinery that monitored the reactors.' Replied the chief.

'It all looks to be in one piece.' Stated the Colonel. 'You wouldn't think that just next door the reactors had been atomised.'

'That's Brodie and Sons Jovian Dockyards for you.' Replied the chief. 'My great grandfather knew his craft well.'

'But you hate him?' asked Captain Garland, with a quizzical look.

'I hate him as he couldn't keep his dick under control.' Countered the chief. 'I never once doubted his abilities in shipbuilding.'

Colonel Breckenridge and XO Harrison laughed thankful for the moment of levity, Chief Brodie looked around the chamber before speaking again.

'Under closer inspection, I believe the lack of damage has more to do with the weapon itself, that the damage is only localised to the affected area which will work to our advantage as the rest of the ship should be relatively unscathed.

'I will contact XO Harrison to let him know what we have found out so far.' The Colonels face darkened. 'Chief there is still oxygen in here even after we vented it before. How is there still oxygen in the ship if she is dead in space for over a century?'

The chief shrugged. 'There could be oxygen that's been stored in vast areas just like a scuba tank, there again there are vast hydroponic facilities throughout the ship which would give off oxygen.

'These two theories have credence as the ventilation ducks may still have been open when the ship was hit even though the plants would die a large amount of oxygen would remain.' Then another thought occurred to him that made him blanch with fear as it didn't occur to him before. 'Or the vessel has been operational until only recently and someone or something used it to get back here.'


	13. The Elephant In The Room

Aboard XO Harrison's Thunderhead boarding craft heading into the Arkship

XO Harrison's Thunderhead had entered the Arkship through the damage done to her fore where her sensorium should have been, they passed the Southsea Castles dropship on the way in. According to Chief Brodie if they landed on the top decks of the Arkship they would be in the naval section, he had provided them with hololithic schematics to read and follow. They would head through the vessels stratagems heading for the bridge.

The ride into the Purest Intent was relatively uneventful for XO Harrison, it certainly wasn't the death or glory drop they had to endure when leaping from the assault craft in orbit of Uranus. Before XO Harrison's expedition set down the Colonel and the High Council had been in conference the other expedition had made entry and discovered there was viable oxygen on the ship.

Which was a head scratcher as she was drifting dead in space there were no signs of life, they were beginning the long trek down into the colonisation vessel. The High Council were at a loss for how to proceed there only input was to recommend that they proceed with extreme caution - not that anyone needed to be told.

Like the other expedition their Thunderhead had not set down it hovered and they debarked via its ramp. They crossed the undulating waves of the deck following the hololithic map the chief provided them. Professor Harvey tried to remain stoic but the XO could see that he was out his depth. XO Harrison couldn't blame him, he was an academic, he respected the man as he had the balls to come in the first place.

Although the professor did look comical as none of the Old Guard armour would fit him so he had a full face helm and odd bits of armour from the Inferno's stores. They had come to a set of sealed blast doors, the flagships technicians were now in the process of assembling the portable airlock around them, all things considering so far everything was going according to plan.

The biggest challenge hadn't occurred during the operation it happened before they left on the Thunderhead. It had been dealing with First Company Captain Strigmore the man's nose was out of joint, by dint of experience and being in command of the first company he should have been given the latitude of leading this expedition on his own.

Captain Strigmore brought this up with XO Harrison when they were getting ready for the operation, he and two of his goons from the first platoon had ambushed him when he was alone in one of the flagships armouries. They came from behind as he was taking his assault rifle from a locker.

'I miss one operation and I am side-lined?' sneered Captain Strigmore, he was a burly man in his sixties. The man's age meant nothing as everyone in the Old Guard had access to muscle and gene treatments he had the body of a healthy forty year old. 'What gives you the right to swan into my company and take over?'

XO Harrison didn't respond or even turn around, he couldn't tell the Captain that he was only in charge because of the conspiracy regarding the Security Council. That Victor may well have orchestrated the death of a High Council member so they had to watch their backs in case the Director tried to use this situation as a way of silencing them. Instead, he settled with. 'If you have a problem you will have to bring it up with the Colonel.'

'I am asking you boy!' bellowed the Captain.

'I've been placed in charge.' Replied the XO, while shrugging. He then closed the locker so he could see their faint reflection in the burnished steel. 'Now you are going to have to be a big boy and deal with it.'

'You can only be in command of the expedition if you can board the Thunderhead.' Said the Captain with sick satisfaction in his voice he gestured for his goons to rush XO Harrison.

With a roar of anger, they both surged forward, XO Harrison didn't turn immediately. He saw the first attackers faint reflection in the burnished surface of the locker the man swung wildly for the XO's head. XO Harrison dropped to one knee as the man punched the locker, missing the XO's head the man let out a cry of pain as he clutched his broken fingers.

XO Harrison swung the butt of the rifle around just in time to strike the second attackers leg, the man let out a shriek of pain as the XO's rifle butt broke the man's tibia. He fell to the ground screaming while clutching the top half of his ruined leg which flopped at an unnatural angle, looking at the bloodied bones which had ripped through his trouser leg.

XO Harrison then stood up sharply he laid out the attacker with the broken fingers with a rifle butt to the jaw, he then surged forward to get to grips with Captain Strigmore. The Captain hesitated for a fraction of a second as he tried to come to terms with what had just been done to his men.

That was all XO Harrison needed, he struck the Captain in the chest with the rifle butt. The weapon hit him in his solar plexus doubling him over, turning him into a coughing mess sprawled out onto the deck on his back.

XO Harrison dropped the rifle then crouched down so that he was at eye level with the Captain who was clutching his stomach trying to suck in lung full of air. XO Harrison said through gritted teeth. 'Now that was a stupid idea wasn't it?'

The Captain couldn't speak instead he nodded vigorously.

'For the sake of moral and your reputation this will not be made a matter of official record.' Growled the XO. 'Your troopers had an accident while getting ready for the operation that's what the record will say, you will write up that report won't you?' The Captain still could not speak instead he nodded. 'We are on the same side we cannot afford to be at one another's throats if you had asked me like a brother and treated me with a small modicum of respect.

'I would have told you that I spoke against leading this expedition as it seemed disrespectful to you but I was overruled by Colonel Breckenridge, what else could I have done we have to follow orders don't we?'

The Captain found his voice again. 'Yes, yes we do I am so-'

XO Harrison held up a warning hand to silence the Captain. 'No apologies quite frankly I am disgusted that you would stoop so low. If you want to make it up to me, make it up to me on the Arkship.' XO Harrison looked at the injured men who were moaning in pain. 'Such a waste, you had better get them replaced. No one will know this happened aside from you, me and your men. I have no problem with forgetting that this incident ever happened how about you?'

After much coughing and spluttering Captain Strigmore managed. 'What incident?'

XO Harrison laughed despite himself. 'Now that's more like it.'

Since the incident in the armoury Captain Strigmore had been a changed man, he was compliant, he even dressed down a few of his troopers who had questioned the need for the XO's leadership.

XO Harrison was brought out of his reveries the technicians had completed their work and the air pressure had been equalised. They were about to cross into the vessel proper, if the schematics were correct they would emerge into a large vaulted chamber.

XO Harrison had contacted Colonel Breckenridge moments ago he reported they were still traversing a massive staircase large enough for the pachyderms to follow. They had descended through several decks with no signs of life and were pressing on, at first inspection the Colonel got the impression that the Arkship was abandoned.

'Captain Strigmore.' Stated XO Harrison.

'Sir?' asked the Captain.

'I don't want to take any chances.' Replied the XO. 'As soon as this blast door is open we are to secure the other side, as far as I am concerned we are in hostile territory.' He then turned to Professor Harvey, who was beginning to look peaky. 'Professor you and the technicians are to join the rear and shelter behind the pachyderms.'

With that the five platoons drew up into fire teams ready to storm the chamber, XO Harrison triggered the airlock control and with a grind of ancient gears, the blast doors opened.

The first company made to surge forward with XO Harrison and Captain Strigmore at their head but they faltered. They faltered as the next section of the Arkship was a battlefield. No. It was a slaughterhouse.

Immediately in front of them was a vaulted chamber tens of meters high and hundreds of metres long, the other end of the chamber was lost to darkness. From the newly opened blast door extending down the length of the chamber were the remnants of hastily prepared fighting positions.

There were desks, tables and cabinets stacked as cover, there were even chairs piled high to maximise protection but it looked to have done the defenders no good. There was battle damage everywhere the chambers walls and floor were scorched and pitted with damage from small arms fire and explosives. The windows of adjoining rooms were shattered.

Light metal interior doors were blown open or ripped off their hinges or rent open. Again there were strange warped metal pockmarks on surfaces similar to the ship scale weapons damage done to the Arkship, there also seemed to be places where the deck and other surfaces had been ripped into like claw marks.

The most distressing part of the scene was the bodies. Judging by the decay and partial mummification they were dozens of years old, most likely decades. Despite their age and decomposition, it was obvious what had killed them, some were punctured with small arms fire, others had gaping holes blown into them and yet more had simply been torn to pieces.

'What the frig happened here?' asked Captain Strigmore, in a hushed and horrified tone unable to take his eyes from the slaughterhouse before him.

'Someone took a hell of a beating.' Answered XO Harrison, frankly.

'Could it be civil insurrection?' asked the Captain.

The XO shook his head and indicated to the warped metal pockmarks. 'Look advanced weaponry has been used against the colonists. I would expect to see similar scenes throughout the vessel. Our worst fears may well have been realised, we are now embroiled in a de facto state of interstellar war.'

'Do you think the weapon that holed her through was used to aid a boarding action?' asked the Captain, it was a logical theory.

The XO shook his head he had thought so too until he took a minute to examine the battlefield. 'No look at the prepared positions they are protecting the blast door we came in. My guess is that something took the bridge and those in this area found themselves cut off when the blast door wouldn't open this is the last stand. Their attackers obviously didn't want to take any prisoners.'

'The poor bastards.' Stated Captain Strigmore. 'They didn't stand a chance what do we do now?'

'This is no longer an intelligence-gathering operation.' Replied the XO. 'From here on in we are on a war footing, secure this chamber and scout out the other end and have the pachyderms weapons systems activated.'

The pachyderms were equipped with laser weapons, heavy assault cannons and a dorsal mounted rail cannon. It was also equipped with advanced friend or foe targeting systems, everyone in the crew were implanted with five radio frequency identity chips, one in each limb and one in the torso so that the pachyderm would not fire on friendly forces.

Before they left the professor questioned the need for five but he immediately regretted asking the question as Captain Strigmore had bluntly answered. 'As there is no guarantee you will be in one piece when you come under the gunsights of the pachyderms.'

Professor Harvey pushed himself through the press of men to see what had made them halt at the threshold of the stratagem. As soon as the professor saw the charnel house before him he threw up inside his full face helmet.

The Captain put a consoling hand on the professors back as he was still doubled over retching and dry-heaving. 'Come on professor let's go get you cleaned up.'

XO Harrison crossed into the chamber as the first company began enacting his orders, he lifted a wheeled office chair from a prepared position and sat down, the chair creaked under the weight of his armour. The XO patched himself into a command channel shared with Colonel Breckenridge and the High Council.

'This is XO Harrison First Company has gained entry. I repeat first company has gained entry. We have entered the vaulted space of the stratagems. We have walked into the last stand scenario there are signs of battle everywhere.

'There is battle damage, munitions damage and human bodies everywhere they look to be decades old. There has been advanced weaponry used with a similar warping effect to the ship based weapon used against the Arkship's hull. It is likely that they were killed in close quarters firefights as well as hand to hand combat.'

'There is no sign of recent activity?' asked the High Marshall over the comm.

'Negative.' Replied the XO, while looking around the vault. 'Nothings been touched in decades.'

'Are there only human corpses?' asked the High Marshall.

The XO and the Captain shared an uneasy glance, after a pause the XO replied. 'Yes, there are only human corpses.'

There was nothing more said on the subject which the professor found curious, it was like an elephant in the room.

'How do you wish to proceed?' asked the High Marshall, after a pause no doubt they were trying to discuss the best course of action but the High Marshall was a military man he knew that the boots on the ground would make the best decision. 'Do you wish to withdraw?'

'Negative.' Replied the XO. 'I will check with Professor Harvey to see if he would like to evacuate but I wish to proceed. In light of this gruesome discovery, I feel it is imperative to press on to the bridge we need to find out what the crew knew before they were murdered.'

'Colonel Breckenridge.' Said the High Marshall. 'How goes it have you found any similar circumstances?'

'Negative.' Replied the Colonel. 'I've been in conversation with the chief, he thinks it stands to reason that we won't find any bodies in this section of the vessel.

'After a reactor breach and before the blast doors were sealed the area would have been evacuated for fear of radiation exposure. We also wish to press on if there is anything in here we need to stop the Arkship before she gets any closer to settled stellar bodies.'

'Very well.' Replied the High Marshall. 'If we detect any movement in there that isn't you or if you are attacked reinforcements will be in there before you could even blink.'

'Negative.' Stated the Colonel, XO Harrison knew what the Colonel was going to say as they had talked about it just before deploying. 'If we run into anything that we can't handle and feel as if we will be overrun destroy the Arkship.

'If there are aliens alive in here we have no idea what they're capable of but we know we can deal with the Purest Intent. If we can't bring them down you have to destroy the ship with us still in it if necessary, we cannot risk anything escaping.'

There was a long silence, no doubt the High Council were bickering, Victor would vehemently disagree with this course of action but he was in disfavour. After a moment more the High Marshall said. 'You are in favour of this course of action, XO Harrison?'

The XO looked to Captain Strigmore who had joined him along with Professor Harvey, both had heard the conversation, despite the professor looking worse for wear they both nodded in favour. 'Yes High Marshall, we are of one mind.'

'Then it shall be done.' Replied the High Marshall. 'The go phrase is Hammer Down after one of you utter that phrase you will have ten minutes to evacuate before we detonate the Southsea Castle's warheads. Godspeed gentlemen and good luck.'

With that the link was cut, the XO looked at the professor. 'You don't have to press on with us I can have you evacuated.'

'I would be lying if I said that I wasn't scared stiff.' Said the professor, he gestured to the vomit down his clothes and armour. 'But if I can assist in any way, shape or form I am your man. Whatever dangers you face I will be vomiting right beside you.'

Captain Strigmore and the XO laughed despite themselves, the Captain patted the professor on the shoulder in encouragement. 'Well said.'

'In that case, you will need to be armed.' Said the XO, he saw the professors anxiety. 'We will protect you but you need to be able to defend yourself. Captain Strigmore will equip you with a light assault rifle and show you how to use it. When we advance stay near him if we engage shelter with the technicians near the pachyderms.'

The Captain and the professor went through a quick tutorial on how to load and fire an assault rifle. That was until one of the scouts returned from the other side of the chamber, they were talking intensely.

'How have the scouts got on?' asked XO Harrison to the Captain and the scout.

'I think you had better see for yourself, sir.' Replied the lead scout in an ominous tone.

The XO, his Captain and the professor walked through the battlefield that was the vaulted chamber, they had to dodge mutilated and blasted apart bodies. Despite the years, there was still the smell of cordite. They passed dozens of makeshift barricades until they came to the blast door at the opposite end but it was no longer a blast door just remnants of one.

It had been forced in but not with conventional explosives, breaching charges or even the warping weapons that had been used in the chamber and on the Arkship's hull. The blast door looked as if it had been ripped open; it looked like it had been casually torn apart as if it was nothing more than paper –worse still the damage done to the blast door was similar to the claw marks throughout the stratagem.

'That has to be at least a metre's thick reinforced steel and titanium blast door.' Said Captain Strigmore. 'What could have done such a thing it went through it like butter.'

'I hope we don't have to find out.' the XO took a sidelong glance to the professor. 'You're sure you want to come with us?'

The professor racked the slide on the assault rifle like the Captain taught him. 'As sure as I can be.'

'Bring up the pachyderms.' Stated the XO. 'We will advance behind them in a staggered attack formation.' The XO then turned and gestured to the side of the vault they had come in. 'Have our technicians install the full works in the chasm as well as in the airlock then have them close the blast door.

The full works the XO referred to were multi-role early warning equipment, they were fitted out with vibration, motion and infrared detection gear.

'Then have the technicians unpack four automated sentries place them in the middle of this vault to guard the chamber from the blast door we came in, have our technicians hook up cameras linked to our command channel. I also want proximity mines placed in a random pattern from the blast doors to the sentries.

'According to the schematic there is only one way in and out of the navy section we will advance to that exit place guard, then we will need to search the entire naval section in case there is something in here with us only then will we move on to the bridge.'

'That will take hours.' Stated Professor Harvey.

'It will take tens of hours.' Replied XO Harrison. 'But the worst thing we could do be careless, there could a horde of aliens in this section of the ship we need to secure this area before moving or else could attacked all sides.'

'I am sorry I spoke out of turn.' Said Professor Harvey, sheepishly.

'You did not.' Countered XO Harrison. 'Your advice in the coming hours will sage, we will search the naval section with alacrity then press on.'

'What about the bodies?' asked the Captain, gesturing to the trail of decomposed bodies blocking the path of the pachyderms.

'If we had the time.' Replied the XO. 'Or if I thought they wouldn't fall to pieces I would suggest to try and move them but we haven't got the time as we don't know what is in here with us, as much as it pains me to say it they are dead their suffering is over.

'I intend to make sure we don't end up the same way. Have the pachyderms use their dozer blades to move them but spare all you can.' XO Harrison looked at the ruptured blast door once more. 'From here on in if anything moves it's a target.'

As they watched the pachyderms bulldoze the human detritus with as much reverence as possible a thought struck Professor Harvey, it was about the elephant in the room. 'XO Harrison, I have a question?'

'Go on?' replied the XO, while still looking at the human remains being bulldozed.

'This is obviously a battlefield.' Said the professor tentatively, he started to regret the question as he was beginning to feel scared about what the answer might be. 'Plus we believe judging by the weapons used that the colonists fought extraterrestrials if that is the case then where are their bodies the aliens I mean?'

'You sure like bringing up the elephant in the room don't you professor?' asked the XO rhetorically with a chuckle, he looked at Captain Strigmore. 'Captain?'

'Well, professor.' Said the Captain, his face darkening. 'Either the colonist's attackers are a reverent species who respect and honour their fallen brethren by retrieving their dead from the field of battle or more worryingly. After all of this death and violence meted out by their attackers, the colonists couldn't take out a single one of them.'

Professor Harvey was suddenly bleached white by fear he managed. 'I wish I had never asked.'

To which Captain Strigmore chuckled mirthlessly. 'So do we.'


	14. Meat Popsicle's

Colonel Breckenridge's expedition on the grand staircase heading down to the hull of the Arkship

Colonel Breckenridge's expedition was making great progress they had traversed nearly a hundred decks. The expedition caught a lucky break early on Chief Brodie had found a master switch which overrode the lockdown protocols sealing all the blast doors in the entire stairwell, although they had to use a great number of their power cells to do so. They had a clear way down through every deck all the way to the Arkship's hull. Some of the decks were colossal in size, on their way the chief gave them commentary on which levels they were passing through.

They already passed through habitation levels, hydroponics facilities, as well as a wide avenue full of shops, bars, cinemas and entertainment called Broadway which ran the entire length of the vessel as well as many more decks which the Colonel had already forgotten. According to Chief Brodie the next few decks down they would come across the access level for the artificial parkland domes, not that the domes were there first port of call the reactors were their priority.

With the news of what XO Harrison's expedition had found in the stratagem of the naval section of the Arkship their expedition was now advancing on a full combat footing, there was a scouting force several levels below them.

Half of the expedition's pachyderms a total of nine were trundling down the vast staircase three a breast scanning for targets, their treads grinding against the metal stairs. They were followed by the _expeditions_ infantry, with the Scavengers surrounding the Colonel and the remainder of the pachyderms bringing up the rear.

Colonel Breckenridge expressed his surprise that such a gargantuan staircase existed in the Purest Intent but it made sense once Chief Brodie explained that if a significant part of the fusion reactor or engines had to be constructed by the fleet's manufactorium vessels and installed during their voyage that they needed some way of getting such massive parts in.

There were track systems and pulleys above their heads which would be used to manoeuvre such equipment. Chief Brodie explained that on their way down to the hull of the Arkship they would pass massive embarkation decks designed to allow for the ingress of such large components.

To give themselves as much warning as possible if things went awry their technicians were installing the full works on the landings they had already descended in the event that they were ambushed. They had a team of advanced scouts equipped with listening equipment and motion sensors and infrared heat detectors advancing several landings ahead of them, if anything was in here with them the Colonel wanted to see them coming.

'Colonel Breckenridge.' Came the voice of their lead scout, they were several decks below even lower than the vanguard pachyderms.

'What you got?' asked the Colonel, while sharing a glance with Captain Garland and Chief Brodie.

'We have reached a new landing.' Replied the scout. 'The stencils on the wall denote that on this level are the Cryogenic Stasis Wards.'

'Christ I forgot about the Cryo-wards.' Exclaimed Chief Brodie excitedly. 'I have been so wrapped up with the engines and what state they might be in that if forgot about the wards.'

'Why is that of any significance?' Asked Captain Garland.

'It is of the utmost significance.' Replied the chief. 'I can't believe I didn't think of it before. The cryo-wards are gargantuan vaults which were designed to house fully two-thirds of the ship's crew and passenger compliment.

'There was to be a rota in which two-thirds of the colonists aboard the Arkship would be in cryogenic stasis for a rotated length of time. So that most of the original people who left on their maiden voyage might have a realistic chance of actually seeing Proxima Centauri.

'Meaning that when the Purest Intent got hit it's reasonable to assume that a great many of their number were in suspended animation. Sure Conclave might have ordered men and women of fighting age to be woken to defend the Arkship but it would also stand to reason that a percentage of the population would remain in or be placed into suspended animation, that certainly should be the case for children and the infirm.'

'You mean there could-' began the Colonel, as a wave of understanding hit him.

'Yes, I mean that there could be survivors.' Continued Chief Brodie. 'The cryo-wards are beneath the reactors as the reactors fed colossal backup batteries which could keep some cryo-pods running for decades after a reactor failure.'

'Secure the area.' Ordered the Colonel to the lead scout. 'We will be entering the cryo-wards when we get to you, use whatever power cells you need in order to bring the door systems online but don't open the blast door until we get to you.'

The expedition continued on in measured silence for several levels each member of the command squad left to their own thoughts to what they may find.

'Could there be a lot of survivors?' asked the Colonel, as a thought struck him. 'If there could be we should warn the High Council to prep their hospital decks and medical staff.'

'If there are any survivors.' Replied the chief, his face darkening. 'I doubt there will be very many left. There was an override subroutine written into the disaster protocol when it came to cryo-stasis. It was requested by the most senior members of Conclave even before her hull was laid down in the Jovian Docks.'

'What was the subroutine?' Asked the Colonel although he had a feeling he knew what it would be.

'The subroutine would kick in if the ship's computer was placed into disaster protocol mode.' Replied the chief. 'Everyone on the crew and passengers was ranked in order of importance to the mission, in the event that there was a disaster with the loss of the ships main reactor for example.

'The computer would calculate how long it would take to reach sol, it would then calculate how many people it could sustain for that length of time. If there were too many the computer would place them into stasis then after they were under it would let them die.

'If the power drain continued the computer would kill the crew in order of least importance, in order to sustain the essential crew members for as long as possible. It's not just survivors I am interested in, if there is any juice left in the system then we might get an accurate reading of when the protocol was set in motion which will likely indicate when the Arkship was struck.'

'That's some cold crap.' Put in Captain Garland. 'Turning them off like that.'

'Yes and no.' replied the chief. 'In the event of naval disaster decisions are always made in regards to who makes it. In history they've tended to be rather uniform, the crew is last off, women and children are rescued first and the Captain might elect to go down with the ship.

'The Disaster Protocol was a process which was ruled by logic, those most important to the mission would be saved that meant crew regardless of rank would survive if they were essential in the running of the Purest Intent.'

'So whoever had the fattest wallet played no part in it?' smirked the Captain.

The chief shrugged. 'It might have had some baring when they were still in Sol and she was being built but I don't see how it would have played out when they got underway. There were no material means which could sway someone, especially the first generation to be born on the Arkship.

'There was no currency used as there was no need of it not when she was designed I can't say what happened after she left Sol. Besides everyone's wants were provided for food drink and entertainment was free, everyone was allocated a living space. The only thing that could be manipulated was breeding, as there was a strict control in regards to population control.

'The only social seniority status was in purpose for example topside on the Arkship was the headquarters of the navy, military and civic interim government Conclave. These departments oversaw the destiny of those aboard the Arkship and it's military and civilian flotilla until they reached Proxima Centauri.

'If anyone has survived it would stand to reason that some of this personnel along with essential crew members to run the vessel along with children and those who couldn't defend themselves.'

The expedition reached the cryo level the first nine pachyderms had spread out they secured the area below the cryo-wards as well as the stairs. The second nine were securing the level, the cryo-wards were on the level they were on and the one below.

The companies were spread out above, below and on the landings. The command squad closed with the blast door. This level was different from the others, they had been burnished silver but this level was stark white it felt like a laboratory.

'How many power cells did you have to use on the door?' asked the Colonel, they only had a finite amount and who knew how many they would need to get into the colonisation vessel.

'None.' Replied the scout. 'The door had power.'

'How can that be possible?' asked the Colonel, looking to the chief for answers.

'The cryo-ward has its own backup systems.' Replied the chief, he studied the door systems intently. 'In the event of reactor failure, everything is independent of the rest of the vessel including the door entry systems.

'This is good news the backup system loses power over time when it is getting low the override protocol would turn off the doors before turning off life support systems. It means that the system is still fully operational, which means we have the best chance of finding survivors in there.'

'Well let's not stand around here.' Said Colonel Breckenridge, he turned to the lead scout. 'Scout out the rest of the staircase I don't want any surprises waiting for us, you are to continue all the way down to the hull.'

'Chief if you would be so kind to open the door.' Said Captain Garland, with a smile. 'Let's go find us some meat popsicles.'

The chief chuckled then typed commands into the cryo-wards control panel, with a tortured shriek of motors the blast door opened, as they moved to enter the ward they were engulfed in a mist cloud. They entered the vault it was sterile with white and chrome surfaces, the ceiling could not be seen as it was lost in the mist clouds.

There were workstations and machinery everywhere. There were vast tanks of low-temperature solution which would be pumped into people in place of their blood. Taking up the greatest portion of space were the cryo-pods they were stacked floor to ceilings in wide avenues, the pods themselves were frosted over.

Next to each pod was the machinery to keep someone in stasis, as well as tanks and pumps to extract and store the person's blood then replace it with life-preserving fluid. There were inactive automated cranes everywhere that would be used to move the tanks.

'There are so many pods.' Stated Colonel Breckenridge. 'There must be thousands.'

'Tens of thousands' Replied the chief. 'And this is just one ward, there are seven more in the Arkship not to mention pod bays dotted around the ship in the event of an emergency.'

Captain Garland walked over to one of the cryo-pods, with his armoured glove he ran the palm of this hand down the surface of the pod disturbing the frost. 'A child.' Said the Captain turning to his colleagues. 'There is a child in there.'

The Captain checked four more pods. 'There are only children in the pods.'

'It would stand to reason.' Stated the Colonel. 'With the emergence of an aggressor and being out in the interstellar medium, there wouldn't be a safe place to evacuate the children so they put them on ice, especially if the vessel was destroyed they would never know.'

The Colonel looked at the chief. 'Can you revive one to see what they know?'

The chief walked over to the nearest pod he checked it over. 'Well they are alive so I could but should we? It is likely that they didn't see anything before the battle happened. Even if they did witness the events of the battle do you want to put a child through traumatising memories without the proper medical support they lost their families, Colonel.'

'I am sorry you are right.' Replied the Colonel, admonishing himself. 'It was foolish of me to even think it.'

'No it wasn't.' replied the chief. 'At some point, we will have no choice.'

'There can't just be children.' Cut Captain Garland. 'They were smart people there has to be some adults here to take control of the ship or to be used as extra hands in case they fended off the aggressors but were short-handed after the battle.'

'That is logical.' Agreed the chief, he walked over to the workstations and began typing commands. 'I will see if I can bring up a roster of who they've got on ice here, although if they were in a hurry they might not have completed an up to date one.'

'In case they haven't we will take a look around.' Stated the Colonel, he gestured for the Captain to start looking manually.

For the next ten minutes they had checked dozens of pods to no avail Captain Garland stopped for a moment he looked frustrated. 'This could take hours.'

'Hours that we don't have.' Replied the Colonel, he activated an expedition wide channel. 'Scavengers get in here double time.'

With that, the company that had stormed the derelict in the atmosphere of Uranus thundered into the cryo-ward with their weapons shouldered. They faltered in their charge as they took in the enormity of the cryo-ward.

'Drop your weapons and gear.' Ordered the Colonel. 'So far there are only children in these pods. It is likely that they were put on ice before the ship was boarded so they wouldn't be reliable witnesses nor would we want to put them through such a traumatic account even if they did witness the events. We need to find adults, gentlemen, I don't care if you have to climb to the top we need to find adults get it done.'

The one hundred Old Guard veterans dropped their gear then spread out through the avenues of cryo-pods, after thirty minutes they had searched all of the pods in this ward at ground level then started climbing. Not only would it be a precarious search, it still would take time.

'This can't be right.' Said Chief Brodie to himself, as he was typing commands into the console.

'What?' asked the Colonel, as he began to walk over to him. 'Are there only children in the pods?'

'What no.' replied the chief, he looked distracted. 'I mean I don't know I haven't got that far ahead. This is most troubling I am going through the command logs, the disaster protocol was enacted almost a hundred years ago.'

'Why is that troubling?' asked the Colonel. 'That's most likely when she was attacked a hundred years into her voyage.'

'It is troubling for two reasons that I can think of.' Replied the chief, he looked genuinely worried. 'First of all, taking into account the speed she has travelled back in the system, we assumed that she was attacked close to Sol.'

'That's good isn't it?' interrupted Captain Garland. 'They were a third of the way there when they were hit, that means it happened when they were further away from us. That would make it harder for any aggressor to find us, that has to be a good thing surely?'

'Under expected circumstances yes.' Replied the chief. 'But these are not expected circumstances it doesn't make any sense, I can't explain it logically. If they were a hundred years out when they were attacked, then headed straight for Sol at the exact speed they were travelling when they began their voyage it would take them a hundred years to reach home.

'But the Purest Intent is travelling at a drastically reduced speed as she is drifting dead in space. At her current speed, it should have taken at least two hundred years easy to get back from where she'd been attacked but it hasn't taken two hundred years, it's only been fifty-seven years from when she was attacked.

'Not just that I have checked the diagnostics of this cryo-ward and the seven others, the battery backups are at ninety five percent. If these wards, as well as the others, are at full to capacity then there is no way we should have been able to get into the vault using the cryo-wards own power supply.

'The disaster protocol was enacted one hundred years ago but it hasn't started euthanizing the children as there is still plenty of juice still left in the batteries.

'By now all non-essential systems should be shut down and some children, if not all children should be dead as their life support systems, would have been shut off as the computer would have calculated the time back to Sol would have been far longer than anticipated.'

'What are you driving at, chief?' asked the Colonel, although he had a pit of worry begin to build in his stomach.

'I am driving at the fact that there is no way the Arkship should be back here.' Replied the chief. 'Not yet not under these conditions. Don't get me wrong I am ecstatic that these children are alive but some of them should be dead if not all of them.

'What I am driving at is the only way the backup batteries could only be at ninety five percent is if the colonisation vessels reactor was shut down only recently.' The chief paused as the Colonel and Captain shared a concerned glance, they were starting to understand. 'I have done only a rough calculation.

'Taking into account how much juice this system uses. I estimate that the colonisation vessels reactor was shut down just before the Arkship reached the outer edges of our own Oort Cloud.'

The chief stopped speaking for a moment as he realised that some of the Scavengers had stopped in their search to listen in, he closed with them then began to whisper. 'What I am driving at, Colonel is the fact that it looks like the crew are either dead or on ice and have been for fifty seven years.

'Despite that fact, the reactor has been operational until only recently. What I am driving at is the fact that there is most definitely something in here with us.'

Colonel Breckenridge tried to form words but he couldn't, for the first time in his life he didn't know how.

Then the command channel crackled to life scaring them half to death, it was their lead scout. 'Colonel according to the schematic provided by Chief Brodie, we've reached the Arkship's hull you had better get down here quick we've found something.'


	15. Transient Motion Detection's

Colonel Breckenridge's expedition moving through the first parkland dome

Colonel Breckenridge's expedition was travelling aboard their pachyderms except for the scouts on their power bikes feeling their way ahead. Colonel Breckenridge was feeling disorientated his mind couldn't fathom the wrongness of this place. The pachyderms were travelling two abreast in a loose column formation down a winding country road under the black false sky of the parkland dome, they were in a nighttime winter country setting heading towards a small hamlet. On the one side of the road was the edge of a forest frozen in time, from when the parkland dome was breached and on the other side of the were rolling fields and dead pack animals.

Chief Brodie had warned him he would feel disorientated but nothing could have prepared him for the feeling of such dislocation. If the Colonel was on Mars or Venus he would have felt relaxed but he wasn't on a terrestrial paradise world. Their expedition was travelling through the parkland domes in the middle an Arkship that had been adrift for fifty seven years.

The expedition entered the dome through a colossal blast door atop a mountain a kilometre in height, the Colonel was sure the view would have been beautiful if it wasn't for the darkness and haze. They'd used roads to descend the mountain and now were closing on the nearest hamlet, soon the Colonel would have to make the decision to either go through the hamlet or around it.

Since reaching the floor of the dome, the Hyenas on their power bikes had picked up several motion hits on their detection gear. Every time they investigated they found fresh claw marks in the frozen mud and grass. As a precaution the scouts split into two-man teams three-quarters of which were patrolling around the expedition, the remainder were forging ahead towards the hamlet.

Moments ago the Colonel had been in touch with XO Harrison's expedition in light of their gruesome discovery their push for the bridge was paused for now. The XO was forced to search every chamber in the naval headquarters their side of the chasm in case there were any aliens holed up, they couldn't afford to be snuck up on.

It would be a long process but it was a necessary one. The only break they caught was the fact that the Arkship's navy got one concession when it came to the design of the Purest Intent. There was only one way in and out of the navy headquarters, so the XO had positioned the pachyderms and sentry guns to guard the way in until the rest of the expedition could complete their search.

The Colonel's expedition was passing the kilometre mark, he would have to make his decision soon but not before his scouts reported back the layout of the hamlet to see if it still matched the schematics. The going was slow as they were travelling in complete darkness, they could not use their floodlights for fear of advertising their presence. It wasn't just the darkness that was slowing them down, everywhere they looked there was haze it was bringing down visibility to less than fifty feet.

'What's with the haze?' asked Captain Garland, it was everywhere. 'It's playing havoc with the scout's sensor gear.'

'It's the great lakes.' Replied Chief Brodie.

'What?' asked the Captain, turning his full-faced helm towards the Dockmaster.

'There were great freshwater lakes in all three of the domes.' Replied the chief. 'They were deep, they were used for leisure, water sports but they were also used as practical water storage. When the main dome was breached and the water in the lakes exposed to vacuum.

'Every drop of water would have boiled almost instantly turning into a gaseous state then turning into vapour droplets. These droplets being exposed to the extremely low temperatures of space, they froze immediately turning them into ice crystals, hence the haze you are seeing.'

'Then why the hell is it in the air?' asked the Captain.

The Colonel's rough laugh issued from his helmet. 'You will have to forgive the Captain astrophysics is not his strong point.'

'Hey, I know there is no air in here.' Countered the Captain, while hitting his superior on the shoulder guard. 'I mean why is it floating I thought there is some gravity in here?'

'There is.' Agreed the chief. 'Just not enough to keep a light mass such as ice particles on the ground.'

'I wish it would piss off.' Grumbled Colonel Breckenridge.

'Amen to that.' Agreed Captain Garland.

The Colonel was glad of the brief moment of levity, despite the surreal environment Colonel Breckenridge couldn't help shake the events that followed from finding the cryo-ward, he hadn't wanted to leave them. The thought of those innocent children frozen for fifty seven years played on his mind more than the conspiracy theory that the Security Council assassinated Professor Dexter.

The Colonel had wanted a distraction but not this, never this. The Colonel had petitioned for the immediate evac of the cryo-wards but he had been overruled. At first, he had been angry with the decision but it was Professor Byrd's wise counsel that made him understand.

The professor's argument calmly and logically countered the two possible ways to get the children off the Arkship suggested by their expedition, as they both had inherent repercussions which made them impractical and unwise to pursue. Then the professor came up with a third reason why it might be inherently dangerous to revive said children –a reason that the Colonel would never have thought of.

The first solution was put forward by the Colonel himself, he had wanted the wards cranes and pulleys on the staircases to get the pods to the fleets tenders and transportation craft so they could evac the cry-pods by attaching power cells to their pods to keep the survivors in stasis until such a time they could be revived.

The professor's argument was that they did not have the time it would take to complete the endeavour. Even if they did have the time the fleet wouldn't have enough power cells to keep all of the survivors alive, even if they did they didn't have anywhere to store the stasis pods.

The professor rightly pointed out that the only way to accomplish the goal was to revive the survivors one by one. Which would be emotionally distressing for the children, as none of the children were born in the sol system, all they'd ever known was the Arkship. They may not even know of Sol if their teachers chose not to tell them of their ancestry. They would need paediatric doctors, social workers and child psychologists all of which they couldn't send for as they would risk word getting out –not to mention the extra provisions they would require in order to feed thousands of extra hungry mouths.

The second suggestion was tabled by the Dockmaster Chief Brodie, being a shipbuilder with intimate knowledge of how the Purest Intent was constructed he knew that there was another reason the stasis wards ran on a separate power supply to the rest of the Arkship.

The stasis wards themselves like most modern naval craft were lifeboats, each stasis ward had explosive charges to break them away from the mothership. They then had boosters and directional thrusters which had a short fuel supply so that the wards could be directed towards safety then build up enough speed that they could drift until discovered.

The professor again argued successfully that to do so would risk tearing the wards apart as the Arkship was travelling at the speed of a comet, they weren't designed to overcome such forces. Plus they were having enough problems trying to stop one object, let alone another eight.

What had sealed the argument was the fact that by ejecting the stasis wards, the ship would be rocked by eight explosive charges, who knew what effect that would have on the rest of the ship especially in her state of disrepair.

At best it might damage the ship and at worse tear it apart, then they would have multiple pieces of the Arkship to deal with before they discovered. Even worse they also ran the risk of waking up anything that might be dormant lying in wait in the parkland domes whether it was an alien or a Von Neumann probe it would surely notice such severe ship quakes.

The third reason why it was dangerous to revive the children was that who knew when the children were actually placed in stasis. What if the children had come into contact with some alien contagion that the human immune system could not handle. The professor used the precedence of human history.

When the Spanish Conquistador's left a Spanish slave infected with smallpox in their flight from the Aztecs which decimated the population of their city through contagion. That was human to human contact but what if the aliens had some minor ailment that could cross the species barrier and devastate humanity. Even worse what if they had been deliberately infected and placed the children into stasis as a living biological weapon.

Colonel Breckenridge and Chief Brodie were soundly beaten but instead of feeling angry, in a way, the Colonel felt relieved. The professor had been lost to them these last twelve months and in that time the High Council had made some rash decisions, case in point how they had initially handled the reappearance of the Arkship.

It looked as if the professor was stepping up and fulfilling the role that fifth council member was meant to, by counselling from a position of logic and pragmatism –until the situation got any better the Colonel felt they would desperately need the professor's wise counsel.

The only spanner in the works by keeping the stasis wards where they were meant they had a humanitarian problem when it came down to what to do if they were engaged in conflict with extraterrestrials aboard the ship and were in danger of being overrun.

If they conducted the Hammer Down protocol they would be condemning thousands of innocents to death. They may not be United Solar Council citizens but dammit they were still human. The Colonel had not brokered this nor did the professor or the other High Council members, they would have to proceed and make decisions when problems presented themselves.

So they had sealed the cryo-ward and continued down the vast staircase, they traversed every deck right down to the hull that separated the two vessels, the hairs on the back the Colonels' neck stood on end when he saw what the scouts had found.

A series of holes had been expertly bored through the bottom of the ship and plumbed through were what could only be described as cables but only to the loosest of approximations for they were effervescent in colour with shifting lights of every shade of purple. The cables didn't look to be made from anything other than light they were haunting in their radiance, the Colonel found himself walking to them without meaning to he wanted to touch them.

'No!' barked Chief Brodie, as he descended the staircase and saw the exotic cables. 'Everyone stand where you are and don't go near the alien technology.'

'Why?' asked Captain Garland. 'It looks harmless enough to me.'

'Don't be a fool!' Scorned the chief, viciously. 'Marie Curie developed the theory for radioactivity and discovered two elements Polonium and Radium, she didn't think these materials were hazardous she would carry around test tubes containing these materials with her bare hands and store them in her desk drawer and they killed her.

'Marie Curie didn't know the dangers of radiation but we do and we might be exposing ourselves right now to enough radiation to kill us. The aliens brought the Purest Intent back here faster than should have been possible who knows what kind of radiation this crap is giving off we could be exposed even now.'

'What do we do?' asked Colonel Breckenridge, suddenly worried and feeling stupid.

'Just stay there and touch nothing.' Scowled the chief, he then stormed back up the stairs he rummaged through the first Pachyderm he came to, he then stomped back down the stairs bringing a bulky radiation detector with him. 'Your scouts should have reported exactly what they found immediately.'

'We don't know who could be listening in.' countered the Colonel, defending his scouts.

'If there are aliens in here they already know that we are here.' Scoffed Chief Brodie, he scanned the area with the detector it was giving off pinged tones as he closed with the cables. 'They would only need to look out of a god damned window, we have to be smart when dealing with alien technology or we will be dead.'

'We will going forward.' Replied the Colonel, he swallowed hard with worry before asking what he wanted to ask. 'Have you found any radiation?'

'It seems we are lucky.' Stated Chief Brodie, the Colonel sighed in relief. 'I am detecting low levels of radiation but not enough to harm us, it must have been given off when the Arkship's reactor blew and before the blast doors closed.'

'That's good then.' Said Colonel Breckenridge.

Chief Brodie shrugged. 'It either means that the alien technology is safe or that it is emitting radiation on a spectrum that I can't detect.'

'I am hoping for the former.' Sighed the Colonel, he turned to the lead scout. 'How far do the cables go?'

'They go for kilometres.' Replied the scout. 'I took the liberty of following them, as far as I can tell they go as far as the third parkland dome then they are plumbed up into the ceiling I didn't feel it appropriate to follow through the decks.'

'That is where the mass is.' Stated the Colonel, he looked to Chief Brodie. 'Then it is a ship.'

'It could be a ship.' Agreed the chief, then he added. 'It could be a Von Neumann probe or it could be a bomb.'

'A what?' asked the Colonel, a chill went down his spine as he hadn't thought of such a strategy.

'Think about it.' Replied the chief. 'You destroy a small fleet and capture the largest ship, you take the trouble to turn it around to head back to its source, you don't know the capabilities of those who reside from whence the ship came. Perhaps you rig the captured ship with a bomb so you can see how they deal with it?'

Captain Garland visibly shivered. 'I had trouble dealing with the idea that it might be a bastard alien ship or a bloody killer probe, what kind of damage could a bomb that size do its bloody two kilometres in length?'

'It could be a planet killer.' Admitted Chief Brodie.

'That doesn't sit well with me.' Said Colonel Breckenridge. 'Considering that the Arkship's original trajectory was Earth whatever this is we need to call it in.'

Colonel Breckenridge opened a channel to the High Council and reported their findings of the survivors and the evident alien technology.

'Then it is true.' Said High Marshall Hadley. 'Aliens do exist and they attacked the Purest Intent, we are in a state of interstellar war.'

'It sure looks that way.' Agreed Colonel Breckenridge.

'How do you wish to proceed?' asked High Marshall Hadley.

'In my mind, this changes nothing.' Stated Colonel Breckenridge. 'Whether it is a giant bomb or a giant alien craft our course is the same we need to enter the parkland domes and identify the mass.

'If it is a craft or it is a Berserker probe or it is a bomb and we can't handle either then Hammer Down protocol is to be put into effect. Those fusion warheads will surely kill any alien aboard as well as disarm an alien bomb or detonate it here at the edge of the system.

'I will send a two-man scout team down into the colonization vessel to follow the cables but I think we won't be able to start the reactor if they're attached to it.'

The High Council agreed that it was best to proceed as planned and that the children should remain on ice during the operation. The expedition began the long climb back up to the middle of the ship to where the closest entrance to the parkland dome.

Colonel Breckenridge called a halt on the landing before the entrance of the dome he wanted his men well fed and well rested before they entered the parkland domes. Chief Brodie slept most of the halt.

When Chief Brodie stirred Colonel Breckenridge asked. 'What can we expect in the parkland domes, chief?'

'For one thing, I think we will be disorientated from the get-go.' Stated the chief, he yawned then rubbed his eyes he was tired from the climb. 'I've read the research notes from when she was being built, those test groups who spent long periods of time on her before she left the docks.

'They reported that one of the most unsettling things was the parkland domes. Which of course is the ultimate irony as these were the spaces that were designed to reassure the Arkship's inhabitants the most.

'I think it was the fusion between nature and the utilitarian function of a spacecraft that did it. We are aboard a vessel that is large, hell its city-sized with big spaces but in every corridor, colonnade and atrium are blast doors that serve as a reminder that if the hull is breached and if you are unlucky to be in the area that is hit you will be vented into space.

'With that in mind a person getting used to the cold reality of the dangers of space travel and learning to love the safety the blast doors provided, then stepping into open spaces kilometre across where there were no blast doors. That if the domes were vented into space there would be no escape, there were no blast doors, therefore it was debated how many passengers would actually use the domes.'

'But they're in the middle of the ship.' Put in Captain Garland, joining the conversation. 'The placement of the domes offered them the greatest protection.'

'Not really.' Countered the chief. 'Anyone in the dome when she was hit they didn't stand a chance.'

The Captain held up his hands in surrender, he could argue that its designers wouldn't have factored in an alien invasion but it would do no good, instead, he settled with. 'Then why did they build it this way then?'

'It was recommended by my great grandfather that each domicile have its own garden space.' Replied the chief. 'As well as smaller communal domes in each home district but the leader of the civic body Robert Polson insisted on these grand spaces and his colleagues backed them.

'In the end, as long as the decisions don't breach building regulations and codes of practice then the client has the final say and even then building codes don't apply to the interstellar medium. Besides, I suppose having a vast country setting running through the centre of the Arkship would have been good practice if they could settle on a world when they reached Proxima Centauri.

'Not just that Robert Polson was not the only one with a penchant for the old world he drew thousands of people who wanted to settle in Proxima Centauri as they were promised a simple arable life. These massive open spaces were for them to live where there was minimal or no technology.

'In fact, some these villages will have no technology at all, the domiciles should be brick built with thatched roofs and there may be log cabins and wooded farmsteads, for those who wished to live a simple life tending animals and grow crops.'

'How could they grow things without technology?' asked Captain Garland.

'A good question.' Replied Chief Brodie. 'In truth, they couldn't in the centre of each parkland dome there was an artificial sun but it was they could do to facilitate the needs of the colonists.'

'Tactically though.' Stated the Colonel. 'What can we expect in there in terms of layout?'

'Well.' Replied the chief, as he activated the hololithic schematic projector. 'Where we will be gaining entry, it is at the summit of the largest of a series of hills. The hill is just under a kilometre from the floor of the dome, to give the impression of hilly ranges. There are cable cars here, here and here.' Stated the chief, gesturing to the projection above them. 'There are also cycle and vehicle stores here and here, as well as a train station here. There is also an artificial ski slope and resort here.

'Finally on one of the summits, there is a small airport for gyrocopters and skiffs. The domes themselves are rural environments with gentle hills, villages and towns, country roads, parkland, farmland and lakes. It was meant to be a paradise from the pics and vids I have seen it was lovely. Of course, I cannot vouch for what it is like now, who knows what those alien bastards have done to it.'

'Do you have any idea what the best route we should take?' asked the Colonel.

'We could cross country but I suggest we take one of the roads as I would imagine it would cut down on travel time.' The chief gestured again to the hololith. 'As you can see all roads lead to towns and villages but I would take this road as it heads this hamlet here. It is the smallest settlement and it also bypasses the largest towns in case there are aliens in there who stick to population centres.'

'I agree.' Replied the Colonel. 'What about the other domes?'

'They are much of the same.' Replied the chief. 'Some larger settlements, outdoor sports like horseracing tracks, vehicle sports, as I've said it was meant to look and feel like an outdoor country setting.

'The only thing of note is that where the three domes meet are two bottlenecks they were designed that way to feel like three separate spaces and to allow for essential maintenance areas in between.'

That had swung the Colonel for he wanted to minimise their exposure to the towns in case the aliens were a conventional military force who would occupy towns in order to defend them. Along the route towards the hamlet, they had come across many abandoned vehicles and mummified corpses, distressingly there were children among them.

They must have been caught out in the open when the domes were breached, as there was no battle damage nearby and until the slaughter meted out in the stratagems of the naval section none of the bodies had been touched.

'That bothers me.' Said the chief, out of nowhere.

'What does?' asked the Colonel.

'If there are aliens in here why haven't the humans we found been touched?' asked the chief. 'Considering the slaughter XO Harrison reported above decks.'

'Well, one answer is that no one came this way after the domes were breached.' Replied the Colonel. 'However, if they have a capable military component then I would suggest the first thing they did was scour the entire vessel. In regards to the people, we found I would suggest that they were left untouched as their attackers preferred live prey.'

'I wish I never asked.' Replied the chief, he visibly shivered.

'If it will make you feel any better.' Added Captain Garland. 'At least none of them were eaten.'

'An alien that doesn't like meat popsicles.' Deadpanned the chief. 'Yeah, I feel so much better.'

They continued on in silence although the Old Guard looked relaxed they were alert they could disperse at a moment's notice. They were half a kilometre from the hamlet and closing fast, the time was looming when the decision had to be made whether to go through the hamlet or around. If they were facing a standard military formation, then it would stand to reason that they would have taken the small village then fortified it.

But the Colonel was trying to second guess an alien. It was a tactical nightmare they were in the dark, travelling through a haze of ice particles approaching a hamlet with no intelligence in regards to layout or even if the hamlet was populated.

Even if he knew it was he didn't know what an alien looked like, they could be a transformer that disguised themselves as the vehicles they were passing or the aliens could be the haze they were having trouble with.

'Colonel.' Stated Captain Garland. 'The Hyenas are approaching the hamlet they are reporting transient motion hits again.'

'Very well.' Replied the Colonel, it seemed the decision had to be made now. 'Have the advanced scouts pursue the contact, see if they can get an eyeball on it. Send a scout team from perimeter patrol to take down the layout of the hamlet.

'I want the bulk of our pachyderms in a wedge formation centred on the road with the balance protecting our flanks. Send skirmishers out in front of our pachyderms. The rest of our forces will be drawn up into an attack formation behind the pachyderm wedge. As soon as the scouts report their findings we are taking that hamlet.'

It took five minutes for the Old Guard to get into their fighting formation and a further ten for the scouts to report their findings. The team sent to investigate the motion detector returns had caught no visual but this time the two-man team reported that they had found tracks that looked like claw marks, they were leading towards the hamlet.

The second scout team closed with the expedition to report their findings. The enormity of finding tracks in the mud necessitated the Colonel to call a halt to the advance. The lead scout, Colonel Breckenridge, Captain Garland and Chief Brodie gathered to discuss the scout's findings.

'It is still the same as the hololithic plans.' Reported the scout.

'Any signs of activity?' asked the Colonel.

'Yes.' Replied the scout. 'We also picked up transient motion detections as well as claw marks in the mud.'

'Somethings hunting us.' Stated Captain Garland.

'It could just be the ice crystals?' offered the chief. 'Messing with the sensors I mean.'

'No.' replied the Colonel, while shaking his head. 'We didn't pick up any detections until we hit the floor of the dome, if they were from the haze they would have happened from the get-go. Considering the haze is thicker on the hills.' The Colonel looked around. 'Something is in here with us.'

'What do we do?' asked Captain Garland.

'What we came here to do.' Replied the Colonel. 'We take the hamlet we search it thoroughly, then we advance until we identify the mass or until we're engaged.'


	16. On My Mark

Colonel Breckenridge's expedition closing on next town

They were into the eleventh hour of their crossing of the first parkland dome and were proceeding with extreme caution and with painful slowness, especially when they'd passed through two hamlets and a village. When they entered the population centres they were deserted there were no bodies anywhere it was eerie, in the domiciles were signs of life things that had been left in a hurry such as half-eaten meals as well as overturned chairs and upturned belongings.

The Colonel found the absence of bodies disconcerting he said as much to Captain Garland and Chief Brodie that he was worried that if there were aliens in here that they the bodies were carried off by them. That was until Chief Brodie made a very cogent point that the missing people were the bodies alongside the vehicles that they had passed on the road to the first hamlet.

They were likely from these hamlets and villages and were caught out in the open trying to flee when the parkland domes were breached. If that were true then there must have been a warning sent to those in the domes but it obviously didn't come quick enough for the poor souls in here.

Colonel Breckenridge had resigned himself to the fact that he was going to die in the Old Guard and it was likely it would be a violent and bloody death he had come to terms with that.

What he dreaded most would be a death like the ones experienced by the colonists trying to flee the dome. To be exposed to the void of space and suffocate, contrary to popular belief someone exposed to the vacuum of space does not turn inside out or freeze instantly.

If a person didn't hold their breath –which would rupture their lungs- a person could be conscious for fifteen seconds to thirty seconds. It made Colonel Breckenridge shudder to think of what it would be like to be conscious for that long knowing you were going to die and there was nothing you could do to avert it.

Their expedition was nearing the bottleneck between the dome they were in and the central dome which had been holed through between them and the bottleneck was the largest settlement on the road they would have to travel through.

The chiefs suggesting of choosing this road had been a good one as they had bypassed the majority of population centres but the one they would have to pass through now would be the equivalent to a midsize town.

Right now the scouts were circling the perimeter trying to ascertain if the plans were the same as the schematic, Chief Brodie was confident that it would be as the others had. When they made their report he would then Colonel Breckenridge would have to decide if he would send in the scouts alone or go in en masse with the entire expedition.

The Colonel's expedition was spread out across the road leading to the village they were in a loose arrow formation with the pachyderms to the vanguard to either side of the Colonel was Chief Brodie and Captain Garland.

With the cloying darkness and the thick haze not only was visibility extremely poor but it gave the town an eerie almost haunted look and feel. In the Colonel's peripheral vision, he saw the Hyena scouts close on their position from the east and west of the town they halter a few feet from their position.

'As far as we can tell.' Stated the lead scout. 'The town is the same according to the schematic.'

'Any signs of life?' asked the Colonel, he still could bring himself to ask about signs of alien activity.

'We picked a high concentration of motion detections.' Replied the scout, he sounded uneasy. 'But instead of heading further away we tracked them heading into the town we hung around the perimeter and detected nothing coming out.'

'I don't like the sound of that.' Put in Chief Brodie. 'Perhaps we should just go around this time?'

'That is tactically unsound.' Countered Colonel Breckenridge. 'If there is something in there and we go around we could be leaving an enemy force to the rear of our position.'

'How do you want it to play?' asked Captain Garland.

'Split the expedition into thirds.' Ordered Colonel Breckenridge. 'Two thirds to either side of the towns flanks while we take the balance up the middle into the town proper with the scouts at the van in the centre, we are to conduct building to building searches.' The Colonel looked to the village then back to his Captain. 'I want everyone to be clear on this if we make visual contact we do not fire unless fired upon.'

'I will make it known.' Replied Captain Garland, with a nod he then began to issue orders.

It took five minutes for the forces to be split into three groups then they began to move in town, under the guidance of Chief Brodie the central force stayed straddling the road as it split the town in two.

After ten minutes they were into the outer edges of the town mostly outbuildings and agriculture silos as soon as they closed with the buildings they found that they weren't deserted.

Lying on the frozen ground either in wooden pens or in the open were farm animals dozens of horses and cows as well as poultry they lay where they'd suffocated. Most disconcerting of all were the human corpses scattered where they'd fallen in their flight when the parkland domes had been breached.

The Colonel, the chief and the Captain were marching up the road with their men searching the buildings and silos they reported that there were more dead animals but no more colonists.

They crossed half a kilometre into the town they were deep in the agricultural parts of the town and were closing in on the habitation sector in the centre of the town there had been more bodies of colonists but thankfully not many.

Chief Brodie informed them that there would be concentric rings of dwellings around a town centre with bars, restaurants a park and a town square. They reached the first ring of dwellings their troopers began searching the homes while the command squad decided to search a single story stone farmhouse.

The construction of the building and the town as a whole was in stark contrast to the colossal ship it resided in as there were next to no modern building materials they were built with stone or wood and some even had thatched roofs.

Colonel Breckenridge felt like he was in a museum as the had to use a brass handle to open a wooden door. As soon as he entered the farmhouse he immediately wished he hadn't, they entered into an open plan kitchen come dining area and sitting around a table were a family of five a mother, father, three children and lying dead under the table was a dog.

Colonel Breckenridge couldn't help but stare in anguish at the colonist's faces two little girls were hugging their dad while a mother hugged her son his all her might. There children's faced were screwed up tight in pain or fear and the parents were looking at each other their faces frozen in time the look of despair on the father's face would stay for Colonel Breckenridge for the rest of his life.

'It doesn't make sense.' Whispered Colonel Breckenridge, trying to look anywhere than the family. 'Look they are at the dinner table they were sitting down to dinner why weren't they evacuating?'

'Maybe there wasn't a warning sent?' put in Captain Garland.

'But the hamlets and the village were being evacuated.' Countered the Colonel.

'I know why.' Said the chief, before letting out a long sigh. 'It's the buildings you see remember how I said this Robert Polson had a penchant for all things Victorian and old world well he wasn't the only one some families chose to live a rustic life you won't find a comm in here I bet not even electric appliances.'

'Wouldn't there have been a public address system?' asked Captain Garland.

'There were warning claxons installed when she was built.' Replied Chief Brodie. 'But there again most emergency procedures involved assembling in the domes as they were large enough to fit most of the colonists. Not just that if she was hit amidships first then all sound wouldn't travel in the vacuum of space.'

'What in an emergency they would assemble here?' asked Captain Garland.

'Yeah, it is the largest place on the ship.' Stated the chief. 'If most areas had to be evacuated say for example in a fire where those areas needed to be vented to the void then the domes would have been the safest place.'

'The thought of them just sitting here suffocating.' The Colonel shuddered, ignoring the conversation. 'To watch your children die to know you couldn't save them.'

'They would have gone quick.' Said Captain Garland.

'No they wouldn't have.' Countered Colonel Breckenridge, looking back to the family. 'They would have been conscious for fifteen to thirty seconds the parents would have seen their children struggling for breath panicking before dying, look at the way they are hugging each other so tight.

'Look at the father the expression on his face looking at his wife he knew what was happening, he knew that his family was going to die and there was nothing he could do to help them. I can't imagine what was going through his mind in those last seconds I can't take this anymore.'

Colonel Breckenridge swung around on his heels and exited the farmhouse it felt strange he had spent the last eleven hours wishing the haze would go away but now he was glad to be in its embrace as he couldn't see any bodies on the ground. The Colonel closed his eyes he took in a deep breath and when he opened his eyes he felt a chill run down his spine.

Standing in the middle of the street lost in haze twenty feet from his position was a figure shrouded in darkness. The Colonel knew it wasn't one of his men as the thing was huge it had to be four metres tall and nearly as many wide it was built like a tank. In his peripheral vision, he saw Captain Garland and Chief Brodie step beside him they were about to raise their weapons.

'Don't.' hissed the Colonel.

'What do we do?' asked the chief, the trepidation evident in his voice.

'We don't lose our heads.' Replied the Colonel, he opened an expedition wide comm channel. 'Everyone stay where you are, do not move and do not under any circumstances fire unless fired upon.'

'It's not moving.' Whispered Captain Garland. 'Was it there before?'

'Of course, it wasn't there before.' Said Chief Brodie. 'We would have seen the frigging thing it's huge.'

'We need to do something.' Insisted Captain Garland, he looked to his superior worried. 'What do we do?'

'Just stay here.' Whispered the Colonel, he handed the Captain his weapon he then began to walk toward the massive shrouded figure.

'What are you doing!' hissed Captain Garland.

'Doing something.' Replied the Colonel, in truth he didn't have a clue what he was doing he just wished he would know what to do when he got there.

The Colonel's heart was in his mouth he was doing everything in his power not to shake with fear what the hell was he going to do? Was he going to try and talk with an alien could the thing even talk? If it did he doubted the thing would speak English. The Colonel got to within ten feet from the figure then his world slowed to a crawl, he knew what was going to happen before it happened and he knew there was nothing he could do to stop it.

To the east of the Colonel emerging from between two farmhouses fifty foot from the figure was a four-man fire team. Before the Colonel could reissue his warning he saw one trooper panic opening fire on the figure. The trooper stitched off three bursts of fire at the figure but the figure quickly disappeared before the first rounds cleared the breach of the rifle.

Colonel Breckenridge felt a volcanic anger surge throughout his entire body he closed with the fire team, the trooper who opened fire on the figure was a scout from the Scavengers but he was from the replacement pool he hadn't fought on the derelict.

Before the trooper could even think about explaining his actions the Colonel roared in anger and hit the man with a thunderous roundhouse punch knocking him from his feet then kneeling on his chest.

'What did I order?' growled the Colonel, while still kneeling on the man's chest.

The man coughed by way of reply.

'Answer me what were my orders?'

'You ordered not to fire unless fired upon.' Managed the trooper, through his laboured attempts to control his breathing.

'And were you fired upon!' roared the Colonel.

'No Colonel I wasn't.' replied the trooper.

The Colonel stood up he couldn't even look at the trooper. 'Now get out of my sight you do anything like that again and I will kill you myself.'

'Was that really necessary?' asked Chief Brodie, over their command channel.

'We are trying to make peaceful contact with aliens.' Growled Colonel Breckenridge. 'He may have fired upon an alien creature which may have taken away all possibility of peaceful contact with it. If it turns out bad and that he is responsible if he survives I will perform a summary execution.'

Without so much as looking back, the Colonel headed off in the direction the figure sprinted with the chief and the veterans setting off after him. They walked down the street in the direction the figure had vanished.

After ten minutes they saw a large shape on the ground they slowed in pace and shouldered their weapons. They split up and took positions behind the stone farmhouses and for the next few minutes they advanced from cover to cover they closed with the figure but it wasn't moving.

'On my mark, we rush it.' Whispered the Colonel through the comm. 'Mark!'

The Colonel broke cover he sprinted forward into the haze and into the unknown he was going to face this thing head-on. The Colonel stopped in his tracks when he closed on the figure and the haze cleared it was a bulky grey mechanoid lying on the ground it had several impact craters on its back.

'Thank Christ for that.' Exclaimed the chief.

'What?' asked the Colonel. 'What is it?'

'It's an automated farm hand.' Stated Chief Brodie. 'The things had a battery life of over a hundred years, we might see more of them wandering around here.'

'Do you think that's what we've been tracking the entire time we've been in here?' asked the Colonel.

Chief Brodie shrugged. 'I don't know perhaps.'

'If it was these robots we've been chasing.' Stated Colonel Breckenridge. 'Why did they run?'

'They are thinking machines.' Replied the chief. 'They have a decision matrix and part of that assesses risk, we are men carrying guns it's a logical decision to keep us at a safe distance, especially since a battle was fought on this vessel.'

Captain Garland swore under his breath before speaking he had left the chief and Colonel talking while he examined the area around the robot. 'The farmhand robots are not what have been hunting us in the haze.'

'How do you come to that conclusion?' asked Colonel Breckenridge.

'The tracks here.' Gestured Captain Garland. 'They are from the robot look they are humanoid footprints, granted they are much larger than humans but they are humanoid. They are nothing like the tracks our scouts have been picking up throughout the trek across the domes.'

'Jesus Christ you are right.' Agreed Colonel Breckenridge, he looked to the east where the bottleneck should be in the distance through the haze. 'I want weapons discipline and I do mean it this time. If there are aliens in here hunting us then that stupid bastards muzzle flash just gave away our position.'


	17. What's Happening?

Colonel Breckenridge's expedition entering the third parkland dome

During the last twenty hours the Colonel's expedition traversed two of the parkland domes, they were now entering the third dome, they had just passed through the bottleneck between the central and furthest domes. The Colonel's expedition had come into contact with more robots but thankfully none of his men opened fire upon them and the robots kept their distance. Their hopes of starting the colonisation vessels reactor were dashed as the recon team sent in reported that alien technology surrounded the reactor and that they dared not touch it.

The Colonel agreed with one misstep they could potentially take out the Arkship and the USC flotilla in the blink of an eye. The scout team at the reactor would gather as much information as possible and wait until they doubled back with Chief Brodie, that's if they got the chance for they did know what the mass was.

They were two kilometres from it as it was close to the bottleneck adjoining the domes. The strangest part of the whole crossing so far had been the central dome, walking past the massive holes were blown into the Arkship. To be able to see the stars twinkling on one side and the USC Inferno and the Hood on the other.

All things considered what with the discovery of the survivors, if the Hammer Down protocol was no longer practicable then they had a clear way of landing reinforcements to their rear. Colonel Breckenridge had gone so far as having landing zones marked out in positions behind them and as a precaution in the two bottlenecks between the three domes, their technicians placed sensors.

So that if there were aliens hunting them they would have at least some warning if anything crossed between the domes to hit them from the rear. They were still getting motion hits on their scanners from their fore but so far nothing had hit the sensors at the bottlenecks. The Colonel felt some relief but that was assuming whatever was hunting them was confined to travelling across the ground, if they were airborne they wouldn't see them coming.

During their journey, they stopped several times to search the villages they passed through, aside from finding tracks there were no signs of aliens. The settlements themselves in every building and domicile they searched there were frozen dead bodies everywhere, they were lying where they suffocated. The first dead colonists they came across it looked as though they died fleeing the dome but in some villages people died completing their daily activities, they were at dinner tables, out in the fields working or slumped over the controls of their vehicles. It was surreal as they died carrying out their daily lives, with no proper warning they had no chance.

Colonel Breckenridge's expedition was moving in a combat formation cresting a shallow ridge, that according to the schematics would give them a view of the mass. The Colonel had also chosen the ridge as it was the best defensive position the dome offered as if needs be they could perform a reverse slope defence against an aggressor.

Plus the ridge was a crescent which would make an enemies attempts to flank difficult. Their scouts were already atop the ridge, they reported that they couldn't see anything with their gear. That didn't concern the Colonel as aboard the pachyderms was better equipment, when they crested the ridge they would have a better picture using it.

Despite being a veteran soldier of hundreds of campaigns he couldn't shake the feeling of trepidation growing in the pit of his stomach. If the fate of the slaughtered colonists above decks was anything to go by the chances of establishing peaceful contact was laughable. During the trek across the dome the Colonel couldn't help but wonder how the aliens had come across the Arkship, space was meant to be infinite.

What were aliens doing so close to the sol system? Were they explorers or empire building? Had the colonists offended the aliens or were they a bestial and warlike race? The Colonel shivered, he hoped he would never find out. Secretly he hoped that the sensor returns were a misnomer.

That if it was a ship ahead of them or a probe that it had been damaged during the battle to take the Arkship and was merely a wreck. Although the knot in his stomach told him it wasn't. The Colonel could not blame the sensor returns on the farm hands as they had taught the gear to recognise them, something else was still out there.

'If they are in here with us.' Stated the chief, breaking the silence. 'Then why haven't they attacked us yet?'

'They are just frigging with us.' Offered Captain Garland. 'They are trying to scare us.'

'Well, I can tell you it's working.' Replied the chief, he had done well so far but the closer they got to the mass the more perturbed he got. 'They are giving me the heebie-jeebies but what could be their ultimate motive?'

'Beats me.' Added the Colonel. 'I've been thinking about nothing else, the only thing I can come up with is that the aliens came across a city-sized craft in the interstellar medium with an escort flotilla of military vessels. I think Proxima Centauri is already occupied by an indigenous spacefaring species and that the Purest Intent crossed into their territory.

'What if the colonists couldn't communicate their intentions with the aliens or establish contact at all? What if they did establish contact and stated their intentions to settle in Proxima Centauri? I know how I would react if a stranger told me that he wanted to live in my house. Suppose the aliens didn't like what they saw or heard and dealt with the threat of killing everyone they found.

'What then? They don't know if the flotilla was from a burgeoning empire, they don't know whether the forces they bested are typical of their species or are there are bigger, meaner and more advanced warriors where they came from?

'A smart enemy would lie in wait gathering as much information as possible before revealing themselves it's what I would do. Why else did they drag this hunk of dead metal through space if they weren't trying to gather intelligence without being detected?'

'That makes sense.' Agreed the chief. 'I don't like it but it's logical.'

The Colonel laughed. 'Neither do I but what I am clinging to is that if this is a recon group or an advanced war party. If we give them a bloodied nose and put up a hell of a fight they may well think better about invading at all or they may retreat to their nearest outpost to request reinforcement. Taking into account it took them fifty seven years to drag the Arkship here with them I would guess we would have ample time to prepare for an invasion.'

'What if there is an armada out there in the Oort cloud?' asked the chief.

'If there is.' stated the Colonel. 'What can you do about it right now?'

The chief shrugged. 'Nothing.'

'Exactly.' Replied the Colonel. 'We can only deal with the here and now. We are doing what we were trained to do the Old Guard go into certain death every day. But you Chief Dockmaster Harold Brodie, you are going above and beyond the call of duty.

'You are at the business end of a military advance against an unknown foe of alien origin. Let that be your only concern if we get out of this alive then we will have to worry about what happens after.'

'If there are aliens on the opposite side of that ridgeline.' Ventured Chief Brodie. 'What are our chances of survival if conflict breaks out?'

'In all honesty, I have no idea.' Replied Colonel Breckenridge. 'We have nine hundred Old Guard veterans along with pachyderm heavy support, with four thousand Fusiliers ready to deploy alongside combat walkers, supported by squadrons of fighters and bombers.

'It is quite a sizeable force and a force to be reckoned with against any human force of the solar system but extraterrestrials are by their very nature an unknown quantity. They will be more technologically advanced from the get go and if they are an interstellar empire they will be deadly, we will need to expect the worst.'

'Semper Maxime Exspecto.' Said Chief Brodie, reciting the Old Guard motto.

'Just so.' Grinned Colonel Breckenridge. 'Will make an Old Guard out of you yet.'

Ahead of their general advance the skirmishers crested the ridge and were in the process of digging foxholes, as well as preparing positions for the automated sentries to go. They would dig in on their side of the slope, they would recon the object then decide how to proceed.

With a strong defensive position, the Colonel might be inclined to throttle back and see how the aliens reacted to their close proximity and none aggressive advance. The pachyderms crested the ridge and were placing themselves in between the spaces prepared for the sentries then the main infantry force crested the ridge behind them to dig trenches.

The Colonel got his first real look at their potential battlefield, he wasn't able to see anything besides the beginnings of the opposite slope on account of the darkness and ice particle haze. The technicians they brought with them were setting up their larger scale infrared gear so they stood a better chance of what was before them. The infantry was in the process of unpacking every automated sentry they had, they ranged from assault cannons, lasers and mortars.

Before long there would be nineteen pachyderms, a hundred ninety sentry guns and eight companies of Old Guard dug in, it was a formidable defence in anyone's book. After half an hour they were dug in and the infrared gear was set up.

The Colonel, Captain and the chief were huddled behind the viewscreen which a technician was operating. The technician used the coordinates provided by the scans the Southsea Castle took of the interior of the Arkship. The technician did everything he could to bring up an image but the mass could not be seen.

'Where the hell is it then?' asked the Colonel. 'Is it the haze blocking the view?'

'No it can't be.' Offered the technician, defensively. 'At this distance with the gear we've got we should be able to see it, it should be lit up like a Christmas tree. It isn't the haze as you can clearly see the settlements at the other side of the dome.'

'Could they have cloaking gear?' asked Captain Garland. 'We have the technology so it's not much of a stretch to think that they could.'

'If its anything like ours.' Countered the Colonel. 'It would give off tremendous amounts of heat a craft that size would certainly show on infrared.'

'It's the lakes.' Cut in the chief, all three men turned to look at him. 'The lakes are vast in terms of surface area and depth. What with the water being boiled away they are more than deep enough to hide a two-kilometre long vessel.'

The entire expedition hunkered down in their prepared fighting position they were waiting in silence having finished their trenches nothing was happening. The expedition had traversed hundreds of decks, they had found thousands of survivors, crossed two colossal parkland domes and had been hunted every step of the way. Now it came down to this, the answer they sought was at the bottom of this ridge. The only decision to be made now was how would they go about finding what was on the lakebed.

'What are we going to do?' asked Captain Garland.

'We will have to initiate First Contact.' Stated Colonel Breckenridge.

'What about what Professor Byrd said during the briefing.' Replied Chief Brodie. 'That the onus of First Contact is on the party who enters the system.'

'Perhaps they didn't get the memo.' Said Colonel Breckenridge, gesturing to the lake. 'They have had ample time to attempt First Contact, we can't yet stop the Arkship, therefore, we need to know what this mass is before the Purest Intent can be spotted.'

'Will we descend the ridge?' asked Chief Brodie.

'No I am not about to leave this ridge.' Said the Colonel. 'We have a strong dug in position, with favourable landing zones to our rear it would be foolhardy to move from it. But we do need to recon the mass send in two men from the Hyenas if they are treated with hostility we will light the place up.'

Within moments the two scouts set off at full tilt down the opposing side of the ridge, as soon as they reached the floor of the dome they slowed their bikes. The Colonel waited with baited breath, in the next few moments they would have a visual on what the mass was.

His mind was racing with possibilities, if it was a ship he hoped to god it wasn't operational, he hoped that it was downed in the battle. They would find out soon enough as the bikers were nearly at the lip of the lake edge.

The scouts skidded their bikes and came to a fall stop, as soon as the bikers reached the edge of the lake something happened that no one could have anticipated. Nightime became daytime in an instant.

Everyone was blinded for several seconds as the artificial sun in the centre of the dome shone with the light of a trillion candles. The Colonel could see the environment around them but he still could not see the mass despite the light the lake bed was lost to darkness.

'I thought the scouts couldn't get the reactor started?' Asked the Colonel looking to Chief Brodie.

'They couldn't.' stammered the chief. 'We can't.'

'Then what's happening?' Asked Captain Garland.

'I think-' The chief looked to the Captain then to the Colonel. 'I think something just woke up.'

The conversation was cut off by the lead scout. 'Colonel we have a visual it's a ship-'

That was all the scout was able to say as blinding fuchsia light engulfed the scouts and everything around them.


	18. Blood From Misunderstanding

XO Harrison's expedition travelling through the grand colonnade towards the Arkship's bridge

According to the schematic, they were following the XO's expedition were approaching a colossal atrium which acted as a fulcrum for grand avenues and colonnades to intersect that lead to various civic departments, as well as other areas of the Arkship. Their expedition was walking through sterile corridors which would ultimately lead to the bridge. They had exited the stratagem and proceeded to follow the schematic through several chambers and galleries, every blast door had been ripped open and there were bodies everywhere.

At this present time, they were travelling down a grand colonnade which leads directly to the atrium. XO Harrison and his brothers in the Old Guard were used to the brutality of war but even they couldn't fail to be moved and horrified at the slaughter which had taken place. Some of them had been clean kills but yet more of the colonists had been brutalised, eviscerated, decapitated and torn limb from limb.

Even though the things that killed the colonists were aliens and by their very nature difficult to understand. XO Harrison's veterans eye told him a lot about the alien's mindset when it came to how they made war. He may not understand aliens but he knew violence and soldiery.

Those who had been killed cleanly, this was the work of a soldier. Not a shot had been wasted and those that fell victim to the killer's weapons had done so quickly with a shot or blow to their vitals. It told him that these were warriors who were carrying out orders but respected the sanctity of life enough to give his enemy a clean death.

There again those who had been treated like a butchers chopping board, these were not professional soldiers or if they were they enjoyed killing for killing's sake. Some colonists corpses still had enough flesh and muscle attached to their skulls that their silent shrieks of pain and terror could be seen. These killers that had murdered their victims took great pleasure in their labours, they took pleasure in the suffering the meted out.

To the XO it told him that there were at least two different martial factions at work here, one that killed humanely and one that butchered until there was nothing left to kill. Judging by the body count and the way that the colonists died he shivered as there seemed to be more of the latter than the former.

The XO shared nothing of his thoughts especially not with Professor Harvey. The man was being slowly driven insane with terror by every new horror they were seeing in each area they passed through.

Even though he had just met the man, XO Harrison had a profound respect for him. The academic was being subjected to things that no amount of training could prepare you for, despite the fact that he was quite clearly terrified he was going forward with a grim determination.

XO Harrison had been contacted by the Colonel, his heart leapt when he learned that there were survivors, so did the High Council express their jubilation when they heard the news. It was a shame that they had to stay on ice but the XO could see the logic in it.

The Colonel's report of the alien technology leading to the parkland domes was ominous, as it seemed in part to explain how the Arkship had gotten back so quickly. Especially since by the chiefs calculations –which were corroborated by Professor Byrd- that in its current state of disrepair the Purest Intent should have taken two hundred years to get back.

The alien machinery also shed light on how the Arkship was travelling backwards if there were still aliens aboard they may have spun her around and powered her down to act as a Trojan Horse to sell the idea that the vessel was a wreck and had merely drifted back to sol.

The last update was that they had crossed through several hamlets and small towns they were about to cross into the central dome where the Arkship had been holed through. They were making great progress but were picking up transient motion contacts, also there were claw marks in the frozen mud.

With this new information in mind, the High Council kept a reserve of vessels including the Inferno, the Hood and both military factions carriers in a flotilla around the Arkship. The rest were redeployed as a safety net to ensure that if there was a craft in the Purest Intents bowels nothing could escape. Most of the carrier's fighters were patrolling a perimeter around the Arkship.

The XO looked at Professor Harvey and as always he was staring at the slaughtered colonists, he had professed that he could look at nothing else.

The XO tried to think of something to take the professors mind off what he was seeing. 'Professor, why is the bridge of the vessel not in the naval headquarters?'

The professors head snapped up to meet the XO's gaze in doing so he tripped over a colonists arm, he righted himself. 'Pardon?'

'The bridge.' Pressed the XO. 'If I am reading the schematic correctly, the bridge isn't in the naval headquarters why is that?'

The professor looked down one last time to the slaughter then shook his head as if to clear it. 'That was decided when the plans were drawn up, like any new civilisation it needs to be protected, especially one that is intending to head out into the unknown.

'Keeping in mind that the people who were leaving sol did not believe in the government model of the day, where three-quarters of its leaders are serving in a branch of the military.

'Being that the Purest Intent is first and foremost a naval vessel you would be forgiven in thinking that the bridge of the craft should be in the Naval Headquarters.

'You were not the only one to think so, Trevor, as the commanders of the colonists navy thought so too. But to the fledgeling civic body that ruled the Arkship and its flotilla, that was at odds with their philosophical beliefs of how they wanted their new culture to run.

'That was the contradiction the navies top brass were just thinking logically that they were responsible for steering the Arkship to Proxima Centauri so it would stand to reason that the bridge would be in their department.

'However, the civic body who had absolute control over the military and navy, they believed it would send the wrong message to its new citizens. That is the nerve centre of the Arkship and its flotilla was in a military department that they controlled its destiny.

'As the leader of the civic body, Robert Polson put it in one of his addresses that sealed the argument. "The Navy may be steering the ship, but we are steering the Navy." And so the bridge was built into the civic headquarters, to drive this point home the bridge is exactly in the middle of the civic section, right in the centre between the navy to the fore and the military to the aft.'

'I wonder if that had any bearing on how she fared against the aliens?' pondered the XO.

'How do you mean?' replied the professor, looking confused.

'If in times of crisis this Robert Polson "steered the navy."' Stated the XO using his armoured fingers as quotation marks. 'Unless he was from a military naval background any strategies this civilian concocted, without the insight of an experienced naval commander they may well have been hampered or even fundamentally flawed.'

'Surely they would have handed over executive powers to the military?' asked Captain Strigmore.

'It depends.' Replied the XO. 'Was this Robert Polson a pragmatic leader who knew his limitations?'

'Academics of the day didn't think so.' Replied the professor. 'They described Robert Polson's attitude and vision as a self-indulged ego trip smattered with ideological overtones.'

'What the hells that supposed to mean?' butted in Sergeant Forbes.

'It means he was full of crap.' Answered XO Harrison.

The professor grinned. 'Quite so.'

'Then I think they would have been in trouble.' Continued the XO.

'Obviously.' Deadpanned the professor, gesturing to the slaughterhouse around them. 'Look at what happened to them.'

The three shared an uneasy laugh their conversation was cut off as the High Marshall contacted the XO on a private channel. 'High Marshall?'

'XO Harrison.' Came the gravelly voice of High Marshall over the comm. 'It may well be nothing but Captain Everson's attack craft in the chasm you entered has detected brief movement and infrared heat signatures.'

'How brief?' asked the XO, his stomach tightening.

'Seconds.' Replied the High Marshall. 'But they were close to the level you set down on.'

'Thanks for the heads up, sir.' Replied the XO. 'I have set up motion sensors in front of the blast doors of the stratagem on the chasm side as an early warning, I also have a surprise for any intruders who enter the stratagem.'

'Good lad.' Replied the High Marshall. 'And good luck.'

'Thank you, sir.' Replied the XO. 'I will keep you appraised.'

With that the link was cut, the XO now needed to decide how to proceed he could either press to the bridge or he could pursue the possibility of there being an unknown force to his rear, in the end, the decision was made for him.

'Sir.' Whispered Captain Strigmore, as he closed on his position. 'The technicians have reported that the detectors closest to the chasm have been tripped they picked up motion, vibration and infrared.'

'How long for?' asked the XO.

'For at least thirty seconds.' Replied the Captain.

'Why is the length of time relevant?' asked the professor.

'The longer the detection.' Answered the Captain. 'Then potentially the greater amount of force arrayed against us.'

'Could it just been the ship moving setting off the sensors?' asked Professor Harvey.

'Negative the sensors wait for motion, vibration and infrared before alerting a detection.' Replied XO Harrison, he then turned to Captain Strigmore. 'Unpack the sentry guns from the pachyderms and create a defensive position in case you're attacked from either side of this colonnade you will have 1st platoon under your command.

'I am going to take the rest of the company along with the pachyderms and going back the way we came, we can't press on to the bridge, not with a potential enemy behind us. If there is something coming for us we can't proceed to the atrium, it's too big with too many ways to be ambushed.

'If we engage and are killed I don't hold out much hope for how long you will survive, if we fall break for the bridge we need to get as much information out as we can in case they conduct Hammer Down protocol.' The XO placed a consoling hand on the professor's shoulder. 'Remember what I said stay close to the Captain he will keep you safe.'

Professor Harvey's heart was beating so fast he thought it might explode all he could reply was. 'Good luck.'

Captain Strigmore shook the XO's hand firmly then gave him a massive bear hug. 'I will be seeing you soon.'

Within moments the sentries were unpacked the four remaining platoons including XO Harrison clambered atop the pachyderms, they about turned then gunned their engines headed back the way they came.

Two of the technicians volunteered to go with them to apprise him of the sensors. With their headlong dash to the stratagem, there was no time for subtlety, the pachyderms were rolling over the bodies of the colonists decimating them beneath their tracks.

'The second set of sensors have been triggered.' Reported the technician. 'Whoever they are they're getting closer.'

'How long until we're back at the stratagem?' asked XO Harrison.

'At this speed twenty minutes.' Replied the technician. 'If we redline their engines we can get there in ten but if they're already inside stealth will be out of the question, we would sound like a herd of elephants to them.'

'Do it.' Ordered XO Harrison. 'We need to get to the stratagem before they do, with its blast doors compromised it's the only place we could hold them.'

'What makes you think they will only access this level.' Asked Sergeant Forbes the leader of 4th Platoon. 'A smart enemy would hit us on this level as well as from above and below.'

'If this was a city fight and we were in a skyscraper and not in space I would have agreed with you.' Countered the XO. 'They're trying to use stealth by attacking us from the void, if they hit us on any other deck they'd risk explosive decompression.

'Not only that they would risk collateral damage and also give their position away, they've spent fifty seven years on this ship they'll know what state her bulkheads and blast doors are in. Therefore the only way for them to hit us with the possibility of a surprise attack is using the way we got in.'

'They would have to understand our technology to use the airlock?' persisted the Sergeant.

'You're shitting me right?' joked the XO with a wide grin. 'They're an interstellar species that have the technology to cross the vast gulf of the cosmos and they've used this wreck of a ship to get back to sol, that airlock would be like a child's toy to them.'

'Crap.' Exclaimed the technician interrupting the conversation, he was checking his datapad. 'They've triggered the sensors near the airlock.'

XO Harrison had no time to tell the Sergeant that he told him so, as the pachyderms thundered through the remnants of the stratagems blast door two abreast, ripping away what was left of the blast doors from their hinges. The pachyderms halted mere feet behind the automated sentry guns in the centre of the vaulted space, three of the four platoons sought cover where possible mostly behind the fighting positions that had proven useless to the colonists.

XO Harrison worried that he was making the same mistake that the colonists had, then he quashed such thoughts. The crew of the Arkship in the stratagem had been cut off and caught off guard, he was preparing an ambush for the ambushers.

There were proximity mines, a quad of automated sentries guns and two pachyderms with enough firepower to halt a battalion for an afternoon, he had done everything he could. A thought struck him the only thing he hadn't planned for was the potential for the stratagem to explosively decompress during the firefight, a wicked smile crossed his face as he thought of a new plan.

The XO turned to the two technicians. 'I want tethering bolts fixing the pachyderms and the sentry guns to the deck when they trigger that blast door I want you to open the outer airlock immediately.'

'Wait you want to explosively decompress the stratagem on purpose?' asked the technician, incredulously.

'Of course.' Replied the XO with a grin. 'It's the last thing they'll expect hopefully we should take out their front runners with the explosive decompression alone. Everything not bolted down will hit them and the automated guns will kick in for good measure.' He then switched to the band he shared with the company. 'Mag-lock yourselves to the pachyderms, brothers, things are going to get a bit windy in here.

'Wait until there is nothing but vacuum in here then I want suppressing fire from second and third platoon, fourth platoon under Sergeant Forbes will assault their left flank and I will lead fifth platoons assault on the right flank.

'Things will get messy quickly we don't know what an alien will look like or how it will fight but we know how we can fight and what we can do. We will show these alien bastards what warfare really is. They murdered innocent colonists we will make them pay for what they did!'

There was a roar of approval as the technicians and troopers carried out their orders. Then there was palpable tension in the air, the Old Guard for the centuries had thrown themselves at every danger the Sol system had to offer.

The 1031st Battalion had a long and illustrious history they had personally stormed a hijacked Colossi city-sized walking death machine and they had assaulted a captured Samurai Castle during the Yakuza uprising. But right here, right now, everything they had done in the past paled into insignificance when compared to this moment.

They were about to do battle with an extraterrestrial race that had crossed the vast distances between the stars and butchered human beings like they were cattle. How the Old Guard comported themselves here and now would set the tone of how the conflict would go with the aliens.

They desperately needed to make a good account of themselves. As an afterthought XO Harrison contacted Captain Strigmore to give him a heads up on what they were about to do.

'They're pressurising the airlock.' Stated the technician in a hushed voice. 'It will be complete in thirty seconds.'

XO Harrison accessed the command link with the High Council, he sent a brief message before cutting the link. 'The extraterrestrials are accessing our own airlock attached to the stratagem, we have doubled back and set an ambush. We are about to engage. I repeat we are about to engage if you don't hear from us in thirty minutes break and head for the bridge.'

There was a creak of gears, the blast doors slid open and for a brief moment XO Harrison saw the aliens, all time stood still. They were humanoid, they were tall dark figures in exotic bulky armour that seemed to be shifting through various colours trying to changee shade for the new environment.

The XO realised that their armour must be clad in active camouflage. In perfect unison, the aliens dropped into a fighting stance and brought up their weapons to open fire. The total time the blast doors had been open was less than four seconds but it felt like an eternity.

All hell broke loose in the stratagem the external airlock slammed open. Most of the aliens were sucked out into space by the force of explosive decompression. The small minority that managed to stay in the airlock did so for only scant seconds, as they were struck by everything not bolted down.

They were hit with the dead bodies of the colonists and office furniture, the sentry guns kicked in but they were mostly targeting the debris. The explosive decompression continued as the destroyed blast doors were leaching atmosphere from various areas of the vessel, the last of the debris from the stratagem left the airlock taking the last of the aliens with them.

There was an eerie silence as the vacuum of space leached into the ship making it impossible for them to hear anything. Then more aliens attempted to storm the stratagem, the quad of sentry guns opened up they were equipped with heavy assault cannons.

It was surreal as the fiery reports of the weapons could be seen and the vibrations of their firing could be felt but the sound of their weapons couldn't be heard. The pachyderms joined the fray with their dorsal mounted weapons, their assault and rail cannon unloading devastation with every passing second.

The XO was pleased to see at least six of the figures detonate under the impacts of their heavy weapons, four more disappeared in brief balls of flame and shrapnel as they triggered proximity mines. The charge of the aliens faltered as they realised they were assaulting a well-prepared force, they sought cover.

The XO knew he had to keep the pressure up, if they didn't the aliens could use their advanced weaponry, then the balance of the engagement would surely shift. Another alien was lost to a proximity mine and three more went down to sentry fire but more got through the blast door but were finding nowhere to go as they couldn't take the centre before long they would try their flanks

'Flanking action now!' roared the XO, over their comm link, 4th platoon stormed the left flank with Sergeant Forbes. While 5th platoon took the right with XO Harrison leading from the front. Fired burned in the XO's veins, this wasn't some kill operation, he wasn't fighting for the High Council right now he was fighting for humanity.

The automated weapons and Old Guard on the pachyderms were punishing the alien's centre and the flanking Old Guard was proof against such things as they wouldn't be targeted thanks to the chips implanted in them. The camo-clad aliens were too busy sheltering from suppressing fire to notice the impending danger to their flanks.

If this was their military capability of the aliens then he wasn't impressed. They got to a hundred metres from their lines, the flanking attackers began firing on the run. The aliens finally noticed the flanking attack and redressed their lines but it would do them no good they would be dead in seconds.

An Old Guard veteran punched the helmet off an alien with a high velocity round when a horrible fact became apparent.

The aliens weren't aliens, they were human.

Horrified, XO Harrison called off the attack, the sentry guns ceased firing as did the Old Guard. The XO's mind was reeling were they colonists? He certainly didn't recognise their armour configuration. The XO wasn't able to contemplate their origin further as the figures in camo armour pressed on with their attack, they punched three Old Guard from their feet in as many seconds.

The XO and his men were stunned into inaction by the turn of events, they were about to be slaughtered, it was only the actions of a quick-thinking technician that saved them. The technician activated the sentry guns and the pachyderms weapons systems, the camouflaged humans were caught out in the open and cut to pieces. The Old Guard regained their composure and cut down the stragglers, within moments the engagement was over.

The XO felt sick to his stomach what could he have done differently, this was spilt blood from misunderstanding if there were more colonists he had to put this right. There again if he was to blame it was only for the opening of the engagement, he had called off the attack their attackers had attempted to capitalise on the XO's hesitation and it had cost him, three good men.

The XO was in so much shock he collapsed to his knees unable to keep standing any longer as a wave of grief hit him. It seems when the camo-armour wearer was dead the power supply shut off too as the person's armour was revealed to be grey.

The XO's grief was replaced by a surged of hot furious anger when he saw a familiar insignia inscribed onto one of their victim's armour. XO Harrison bellowed with rage then began beating his armoured fists against the face of the dead man who had been un-helmed, by the time the Old Guar pulled him off, the man's face was unrecognisable.

'Sir.' Asked Sergeant Forbes. 'What's going on?'

The XO suppressed his feelings of anger, he gestured to the corpses. 'They are the Security Council!'

The Sergeant looked at the corpse then back to the XO. 'How can you tell?'

'Look at the insignia.' Replied the XO. 'Just under the gorget, it's the all seeing eye.'

'Crap he's right.' Exclaimed the Sergeant after inspecting the corpse. 'Why the hell would they want to attack us?'

'I have a pretty good idea why.' Replied the XO through gritted teeth. 'I will have to call this in.'

The XO didn't get a chance as most of their number were thrown from their feet as the ship shook intensely, the deck plates vibrated, the XO was sure that there would be terrifying sounds if they weren't in a vacuum.

'Ship quake!' bellowed a technician.

'I hope to god that it is.' added the XO, looking about the ship.

'You think they've hit the Colonel's expedition too?' asked Sergeant Forbes, catching onto what the XO was thinking.

'I would expect so.' Replied the XO, he looked down to the bodies then to the way further into the Arkship. 'We need to get to the bridge before the spooks send anyone else in.'

'We have survivors!' called out one of their troopers.

'Close the airlock.' The XO ordered the technicians, his blood was boiling with anger. 'Pressurise this place now.'

The XO then stormed over to where his men were waiting with three Security Council operatives they had disarmed, at least one was carrying a wound. With oxygen seeping back into the chamber their helms had been taken from them, they were all men and one of them looked scared stiff.

'Up against the wall.' The XO ordered the operatives but they didn't budge, he shouldered his assault rifle. 'Get the frig up against the wall.'

They still didn't move but the Old Guard troopers forced their backs against the wall.

'What is your purpose here?' asked the XO, he still had his weapon shouldered. 'What were you sent here to do?' XO Harrison was met with a hostile silence. 'Answer me!'

'We aren't telling you a damn thing.' Said one of the operatives, the one carrying a wound. 'So frig you!'

XO Harrison didn't even hesitate he pulled the trigger of his assault rifle and blew the head off the operative at point-blank range, showering everyone nearby with bits of armour shrapnel, skull fragments and brain matter. The two surviving operatives tried to flee but were forced back in place by the Old Guard.

'What is your purpose here?' The XO asked again to the two surviving spooks.

'We aren't telling you anything!' shouted an operative. 'You might as well shoot us!'

Again the man who spoke was shot this time he was hit in the chest, he slid down the wall trailing blood with him he was dead before he hit the deck. The XO could tell that the remaining operative wasn't nearly as stoic as his colleagues, he knew he could break him.

The XO crossed the space between him and the operative, stepping over the headless corpse of the operative in the process. The XO placed the muzzle of his assault rifle between the eyes of the spook.

'You have seen your friends die.' Growled the XO. 'I can tell you don't want to die, you're shaking you pathetic maggot. Know this I will not hesitate to blow your worthless head off your shoulders if you do not tell me what the frig you are doing here!'

'The shadow admiral sent us.' Blurted out the operative, he was shaking and speaking too quickly that he could hardly be understood. 'After the détente was reached, the Director has been stripped of all comms equipment, she wasn't happy about losing control that's why she elected to stay aboard the Hood. She couldn't seek permission for this op so she gave the go-ahead personally.'

'So Victor couldn't order our murder so that rancid bitch did his dirty work for him?'

The operative looked genuinely shocked and horrified, it was an expression that would save his life. 'Murder you? Why would we do such a thing? I don't even know who the hell you are. We were sent to gain entry and beat you to the bridge, we were only sanctioned to only fire unless fired upon.' The operative swallowed deeply before continuing. 'Will all due respect, sir, you fired upon us first.'

'We thought you were the frigging aliens!' roared the XO, he wasn't entirely satisfied with the spook's explanation. 'What about after we ceased fire you opened up again, we lost three good men!'

'I can't answer that.' Replied the spook, he was sweating profusely. 'I was in cover pissing in my pants, who knows what goes through someone's mind in a firefight.'

The XO lowered his weapon, the spook let out a long sigh but his relief was short-lived as the assault rifle shot right back up again. 'What about the other expedition?'

'What about it?' stammered the spook.

'Get onto the shadow admiral.' Ordered the XO. 'Tell her to call off the attack on the Colonel's expedition, tell her we have you held hostage.'

'There is no assault on the other expedition.' Replied the operative. 'There wasn't an assault ordered on you. We were meant to get to the bridge and get out with whatever information we could, whatever we couldn't carry we were ordered to destroy.'

'Then how did you know where the bridge was?' Replied the XO, he was buying it. 'From what you've said no one can contact the Director, so how did you know where to go?'

'We didn't.' replied the spook, he was calmer now. 'We've been lying in wait even before you deployed, hence the camo-armour. We only knew where you made ingress because of the airlock. We knew we couldn't fool the sensors but there was no other way in.

'We delayed our entry so you would be deeper in the ship, our plan was to get in and disperse before you could get back. We hoped that you would think we were aliens and that would slow you down while you did a sweep. Obviously, the plan backfired, I am sorry for the losses of your men, I truly am.'

The XO paused, he still held the rifle to the man's head. The XO looked to Sergeant Forbes, the men killed were in their company they would decide the man's fate.

'I believe him about what happened here.' Said the Sergeant, gesturing around the stratagem. 'But I don't believe him about what's happening below.'

'Whatever is happening below decks.' The spook began to sob. 'On my life, I swear that it isn't us it has nothing to do with us, I have no idea what's happening down there!'

XO Harrison was interrupted on making his decision on whether or not to execute the operative as the lights in the stratagem came on for the first time in fifty seven years.


	19. The Kraken

Colonel Breckenridge's expedition making First Contact

After the fuchsia light dissipated the scouts or their bikes could not be seen they simply ceased to be and so had a great swathe of the edge of the lake. The entire expedition was stunned into inaction the Colonel couldn't quite believe what he had seen, then two things happened the first became apparent in the opening seconds. Whether it was the light of the artificial sun or the intensity of the fuchsia light they would never know but the ice particles began to heat up and cling together becoming heavier.

The atmosphere generators were online resealing the parkland from the cold void of space despite the hole blown into her amidships. Within moments it began to gently rain massive globules of water the size of baseballs, which began to float gently towards the ground. Then the Colonel suddenly felt heavier, he knew it was the Arkship's gravity drive kicking in. With the gravity field now equal to that of Earth, there was a tropical torrent of rain that hit the dome for four minutes until there were practically rivers of water surging down the ridge.

Now that the centre of the parkland dome was free of ice particles and light up like a summers day the Colonel could clearly see the edge of the lake bed it was lit up with a Borealis of colours and vibrant light shining in the dome like a colossal laser show. The entire dome began to violently shudder as if they were caught up in the grip of a devastating earthquake.

As if it was a Kraken emerging from the depths of an ocean a metal behemoth sluggishly soared up from the lake bed until it hovered midway between the ground and the ceiling of the dome. It was a ship that much was obvious but it was not the flying saucer that countless artists and science fiction writers of old had portrayed.

It was a violent angular cobalt blue shard shaped like a brutal dagger, it had effervescent running lights along its lateral lines. Hanging from the alien vessel were the mysterious shifting light cables they had found plumbed to the colonisation vessels reactor. The vessel just hung there in the dome the entire expedition was mesmerised before them was the answer to the big question that human beings had been asking since time immemorial.

The answer was no, they were not alone in the universe. Here before them was physical, empirical proof that aliens did exist. The fear, the stress, the paranoia and the slaughter the aliens had meted out was forgotten in this golden moment. The Colonel looked on with awe gawping at the alien spacecraft in front of him, perhaps there was a chance for peaceful contact after all.

'What is it?' asked Colonel Breckenridge looking to Chief Brodie. 'Is it an alien spacecraft or a Von Neumann probe?'

'Hell if I know.' Replied Chief Brodie without taking his eyes from the craft.

The shifting light cables detached from the alien vessel and began to fall to the ground, the first thing the Colonel notice was that the cables began to slow in there fall. Seconds after the cables detached the lights in the dome cut out, everywhere was pitch black once more. The water on the ground boiled once again and was in the process of becoming ice crystals once much, but to the expedition, it was unseen to them for everyone's attention was elsewhere.

Every set of eyes were glued to the alien spacecraft floating in mid vacuum. No one dared move, no one could scarcely believe what they were seeing. Every step of the way every shred of evidence pointed towards extraterrestrial involvement but to see an actual spaceship in front of their eyes left and now Colonel Breckenridge had to decide how to proceed.

'What do we do?' asked Captain Garland.

'Nothing we do nothing.' Replied Colonel Breckenridge. 'We see what they do they have crossed the cosmos to come here we wait to see what they want we see what they came for.'

'But they killed the scouts.' Persisted the Captain.

'We don't know what they are.' Replied the Colonel. 'We don't know if they have a culture or how they may perceive an insult. I am not about to retaliate and trigger an interstellar war we wait to see what they do like Professor Byrd said it is up to them to conduct First Contact it is up to us to make sure we don't lose our heads.'

Something happened that Colonel Breckenridge couldn't have anticipated, without orders and without warning an Old Guard veteran broke ranks, his brothers tried to hold him back but he shrugged them off then began to descend the ridge, no one dared to follow him. No one else dared move.

The Colonel quickly switched to a private channel with the veteran. 'Stand down! Just what do you think you're doing?'

'It's the weapons you see.' Said the trooper. 'The scouts approached them with guns drawn perhaps the colonists did too. It's the weapons you will see we need to show them we are a peaceful race.'

Colonel Breckenridge let out a long sigh he couldn't well call him back now for fear of what kind of message that would send to the aliens if the veteran turned his back on them. 'You had better be right about this.'

The veteran didn't reply he reached the mid-point between the spaceship and the ridge. The trooper made a deliberate show he held his assault rifle above his head then he ever so gently like it was a newborn baby he laid the weapon out on the ground. The moment the weapon touched the frozen ground did a beam of fuchsia light engulf the trooper but he did not disappear like the scouts did, the man stood there bathed in ghostly light.

'Colonel. I … con.. tact..' came the voice of the trooper it was laced with distortion.

The Colonel never got a chance to query what the veteran had said or try to clean up the signal as a fat ball of incandescent sickly purple light shot down the ghostly beam and annihilated the veteran engulfing a great portion of the frozen ground in purple flame.

'What do we do?' asked Captain Garland, looking to Colonel Breckenridge for answers.

'We fight back!' Roared the Colonel, the aliens had already drawn first blood the decision was made for him. 'Open fire hit them with everything we have!'

The expeditions weapons lit up the edge of the ridge as they threw every munition they had against the alien ship. At the same time, a vast crater was blown into the ridge as the alien vessel fired again taking a pachyderm and a half dozen Old Guard with it. The ridge shook with the force of their fire the front of the alien vessel disappeared beneath a ribbon of explosive detonations but it looked to be having no real effect.

'This is Colonel Breckenridge!' shouted the Colonel, after he opened a link with the High Council. 'We are engaged with an alien vessel. It is active and airborne. I repeat the vessel is airborne. We need immediate reinforcement, we need everything you have or we won't last long against this thing!'

'Your request for immediate reinforcement is acknowledged.' Said High Marshall Hadley, in as much of a level tone as he could manage. 'But what about the Hammer Down protocol?'

'Do you think I would really let thousands of innocent children die?' asked Colonel Breckenridge.

'Never in a million years.' Agreed the High Marshall. 'Reinforcements are on their way.'

The alien ship fired its weapon again a beam of fuchsia light struck out this time it was a fleeting ray that swatted another pachyderm into inexistence. Perhaps the weight of their weapons fire was messing with the ships weapon array or targeting sensors. The ship hit out again the beam lasting longer, it cut across the top of their ridge taking out a squad of Old Guard in one blow.

The ridge was offering the Old Guard great protection but they were essentially engaged in a firefight with a vessel whose tonnage would be the equivalent to a light cruiser. It was an engagement that would only end one way, at this rate of attrition they wouldn't last twenty minutes. But that didn't matter to the Colonel they would fight until they won or until they died that was the Old Guard way.

Suddenly alien ship was rocked under more detonations, the Colonel looked to where the ordinance came from and swooping above their heads came a squadron of twelve fighters and behind them a squadron of eight bombers.

Colonel Breckenridge looked further down the ridge and saw two troop carriers and a bulk hauler which were heading for the pre-marked landing zones. The fighters launched entire missile pods and fired their rail cannons, they slammed against the bow of the alien vessel, this time it rocked beneath the impact of weapons designed for ship to ship fighting.

The alien ship changed tac it began firing on the fighters, who in turn scattered and launched countermeasures. Dozens of pinpoint flashes of fuchsia light struck out from the aliens lateral lines, the pinpoints of light hit some of the countermeasures but most went for the fighters.

Many of the fighters evaded the salvo but two were cut in half then exploded, the surviving fighters were coming about for another pass. The bombers were soaring over the top of the alien vessel, they dropped their deadly payload but not before four of their number were blown to bits. The alien ship visibly dropped under the strain of the high-yield explosives but was seemingly undamaged.

The troop carriers and the bulk hauler touched down on the landing zones disgorging the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers a famous two battalion regiment hailing from the British region of Earth. Trudging from the bulk hauler were six, five-metre tall bipedal combat walkers, they were armed to the teeth with weaponry that would find itself at home on a fighter.

The reinforcements were surging for their ridgeline, the troop carriers and the bulk hauler took off after deploying their payload being useless in a pitched battle. A troop carrier and bulk hauler were struck by fuchsia beams of light from the alien ship, as it began to power forwards. The troop carrier detonated instantly and the bulk hauler with her stern ablaze hit the ground in the central dome before it exploded shaking the Arkship.

The alien ship surged over the Colonel's position on the ridge it powered through the bottleneck and entered the central dome it while blasting apart the last troop carrier for good measure. The alien vessel was coming about with its bow to face the starboard side of the Arkship, where there were no capital ships to face off against. It was being hounded every step by the surviving eight fighters and three bombers but they were doing little to no damage.

The alien vessel almost completed its turn when the entire darkness of the chamber was bleached white as a heavy rail cannon round fired from a capital ship shot through the hole in the Arkship and struck the alien vessel amidships, sending out gouts of sickly purple light and what seemed to be molten grey and purple metal. The alien ship wobbled on its axis losing some elevation but then righted itself, it surged from the central chamber and disappeared from view with the fighters and bombers in its wake.

'Light the floods!' Bellowed Captain Garland over the command channel. 'Colonel look to the lake bed!'

The Colonel tore his eyes away from the fleeing alien ship, he looked to where the Captain was pointing, lit up against the starks light were dozens of figures, the Colonel could see at least four score massive figures pour over the lip of the lakebed. After another few moments, perhaps another ninety followed them. It was obvious that they were aliens they were large monstrously so, they were fast too ambulating on four legs, they also had four upper limbs their purpose as yet unknown at this distance.

'What in god's name are those things.' Muttered Chief Brodie, looking at the dozens of figures hurling themselves towards their position.

'I have no idea.' Stated Colonel Breckenridge. 'They are our enemy that will have to suffice for now.'

'I was hoping for little green men.' Added Captain Garland. 'Look at those things they're huge.'

'As long as they can die that's all I care about.' Said Colonel Breckenridge. 'Let's hope the old adage holds true that the bigger they are the harder they fall.'

'Well, they are plenty frigging big.' Said Captain Garland.

When they came under floodlights proper the aliens looked even more terrifying, god knows what the colonists felt when they were attacked by them. The first wave was a kilometre away and closing fast. The sentry guns equipped with mortars, the Old Guard heavy weapons teams and the pachyderms opened fire stitching the dome floor with explosions.

Their reinforcements arrived cresting the ridge were four thousand light armoured infantry, along with three combat walkers to each flank. The commander of the fusiliers sought the Colonel out, several of the Old Guard troopers pointed him to the Colonel's location.

The fusilier's commander was a tall broad man, he had a weapon strapped across his back, his features could not be discerned beneath his visor but he had a well-spoken British accent. 'Lieutenant Colonel Breckenridge I am Brigadier General Abbott.'

The Colonel shook the general's hand. 'Thank you for your support.' He gestured over his shoulder to the ridge below. 'It looks like we'll need it.'

The brigadier general followed his gaze and looked at the eighty aliens ascending the ridge if he was scared he didn't show it. How the brigadier general reacted in the next few moments would set the tone of the conflict. The Colonel was first on scene and in charge of the expedition but the general outranked him even if they were from separate military factions.

'How would you like to proceed?' asked the Colonel, forcing the issue if he had to step down he wanted it to be now.

Brigadier General Abbott inclined his head in a show of respect. 'I defer to your command Colonel we are at your disposal.'

The Colonel grinned he loved the British. 'We hit them with everything we have until they are a hundred meters out then we leave one of your battalions in reserve. The reserve battalion fires until they're dry then we charge the enemy with the pachyderms in the centre and your combat walkers hitting their flanks our infantry will follow the pachyderms in.'

The brigadier general nodded his understanding then turned to his subordinates to issue orders. The Colonel looked to the battlefield below the aliens were closing fast the closer they got the bigger they looked. In the light of the floods, he could see that they were a mixture of off green and grey they had bulbous heads which ended in vicious jaws.

If the green ichor around impact craters was anything to go by then at least six aliens had bought it this did not reassure the Colonel as this much firepower would have devastated an entire regiment by now. The Colonel saw another alien be blown apart by at least two rail cannon rounds that was something he could hold onto at least the aliens could be killed.

Captain Garland, Chief Brodie, Colonel Breckenridge and Brigadier General Abbott drew alongside one another and watched as the aliens hit the four hundred metre mark. The Colonel looked to the Dockmaster. 'Chief Brodie I request that you stay with the brigadier generals reserve battalion.'

'Like hell, I will.' Countered the chief, he gestured to his assault rifle. 'I don't think I lugged this heavy piece of crap through two hundred decks and twenty kilometres of parkland domes not to use it, I am going down there with you boys.'

'That is your choice, chief.' The Colonel couldn't order the man around he had to respect his decision he turned to Captain Garland. 'You look after him.'

The Captain clapped his hand on the chiefs shoulder guard. 'Like white on rice.'

The brigadier general put his right arm over his shoulder and unsheathed a two-metre long sword.

'A sword?' asked the Colonel, he couldn't believe what he had seen.

'An officer is improperly dressed.' Replied the brigadier general in a light tone, he activated the power plant in its hilt making it glow an angry red. 'If he goes into battle without his sword.'

The Colonel was unable to offer a reply as an Old Guard trooper yelled. 'Approaching one hundred metres!'

The Colonel switched to a channel shared with all military personnel. 'These aliens have slaughtered the colonists who left the Sol system in peace. They killed them like they were animals. Not only that gentlemen there are survivors on board, defenceless children if we die they die. Kill for the living and kill for the dead!'

'Kill for the living and kill for the dead!' came the tumultuous response from the warriors on the ridge.

The aliens hit the one hundred metre mark without having to be ordered two thousand British fusiliers spread across the ridge opened fire with everything from assault rifles to rocket launchers, adding their deadly firepower to the fray. Of the first eighty aliens that charged their position, there was ten which didn't make it past the first salvo but there was another ninety around a kilometre behind and closing fast.

To the Colonel, they looked like the scariest thing he had ever seen in his entire life. They looked like they had been pulled out of a science fiction horror movie. Unlike a horror movie the Colonel couldn't turn off the movie or change channel because he was scared, he had to deal with them and he would, he would meet them head-on.

'Prepare to charge.' Ordered the Colonel, as he racked his assault rifle then shouldered it. 'Charge!'

At his orders the pachyderms and combat walkers broke ranks and surged down the ridge heading for the aliens, both sides opened fire at the same time. The aliens looked to have a shoulder mounted weapon that spat green fire, which stuck to the pachyderms and kept burning even in a vacuum, two of the pachyderms juddered to a halt their engines ablaze. The combined Old Guard and Royal Fusilier infantry formations roared war cries then charged down the slope of the ridge.

Colonel Breckenridge fired on the run snapping off short controlled bursts from his assault rifle, the ammunition fired by the weapons were explosive penetrators. They were enough to put down a charging elephant and seeing the enemy up close he was glad to have them. His weapons fire looked to have little effect at this range, he snapped off a few more before picking up the pace to close the distance.

There would have been a peal of thunder if what happened next had happened in an atmosphere, the two lines of USC forces and aliens came together, the pachyderms and combat walkers collided with the monstrous aliens. As the Colonel closed on the battle he saw things he had never seen, his world slowed to a crawl.

The Colonel saw now that the aliens four upper arms ended in what looked to be metre long blades, they were sharp enough to cut through steel as he saw an alien cut off pachyderms assault cannon as it, in turn, blew the alien into two pieces with its rail cannon. The dying alien fired its shoulder mounted weapon immolating the pachyderm but the pachyderm kept going.

There were more aliens than there were pachyderms and combat walkers so once the battle was joined the aliens not engaged surged passed the battle and headed for the infantry. The Colonel called a halt in the charge and ordered the infantry into a firing line like the infantry would have done during the Napoleonic wars they fired until their magazines were spent. Several aliens were brought down torn apart by explosive penetrators but still, they came on, the infantry reloaded then renewed their charge.

The Colonel was confronted by an alien it towered over him at first he thought it was a spider but up close he could see lizard-like green scaly skin beneath the grey biomechanical armour. The Colonel considered aiming for its head but he didn't know where its vital organs were so he decided to aim for the largest target he aimed for its chest.

Colonel Breckenridge was surrounded by the Scavenger company they added their fire to his. The alien cut down four of his men then two of its bladed arms were blown off and it was brought down in a crumpled heap. They kept firing for five more seconds to ensure that it was dead. The Colonel looked around to see that one of those men was Chief Brodie standing next to Captain Garland.

'How are you doing, chief?' asked the Colonel.

'I am crapping in my pants.' Managed the chief then there was a light in his eyes. 'But I've never felt so alive.'

The Colonel chuckled then turned back to the battle he saw that most of the infantry were at loggerheads with the aliens who had surged ahead, many men were being cut to pieces under the aliens bladed arms or immolated by green fire for every alien brought down several more troopers were killed but by bloody attrition the humans were winning.

Those not embattled with the main force were sprinting headlong into the engagement where the pachyderms and combat walkers were battling the aliens. Colonel Breckenridge knew that beyond this engagement the second wave was closing fast they needed to take out the first wave before the second hit.

To his surprise and horror the Colonel saw an alien chop off the assault cannons of a pachyderm then begin to lift up the front end of the pachyderm with brute strength, the pachyderm tried to blow the alien to pieces with its rail cannon but the alien was at the wrong angle.

Colonel Breckenridge felt his jaw fall slack as he watched Brigadier General Abbott charge towards the upturned pachyderm with this sword held in the air in a two-hand grip. The general jumped onto the rear of the pachyderm and sprinted over its hull, the alien saw him coming and tried to immolate him with green fire but missed, as he too was at the wrong angle.

With a massive war cry over the comm, the general ran across the hull of the pachyderm which ceased firing as it registered his presence. The brigadier general brought his glowing sword down upon neck of the alien with a lightning strike. The generals glowing power sword sliced through the alien's armour cutting into its scaly flesh spraying out gouts of green blood, the blow was so forceful that the blade became wedged in the alien's body.

The sword must have hit something vital as the aliens body crumpled instantly, not being able to hold up the weight of the pachyderm the alien was crushed under the weight of the pachyderm. As the pachyderm crashed to the ground the sword was wrenched from the corpse of the alien and for good measure the pachyderm power over the alien crushing it into the ground with its mighty tracks.

The brigadier general stood astride the hull of the pachyderm holding aloft his power sword as the alien was ground down beneath the tracks of the pachyderm. The man looked like a hero of legend he looked like a demigod of ancient Greek mythology.

Colonel Breckenridge knew that he would remember the generals heroic action for the rest of his life. If they survived this war he would have a bronze statue of the brigadier general stood astride the pachyderm with his sword held aloft in victory, with the vile alien squashed to blood ruination beneath the tracks of the pachyderm.

The Colonel charged once more into the battle, seeing him approach the general jumped down from the pachyderm, the Colonel embraced the general like he was a brother.

'That was the most courageous thing I have ever seen.' Exclaimed the Colonel as he released his grip.

'Nonsense.' Countered the brigadier general, with typical British modesty. 'A single Old Guard battalion engages a two-kilometre long alien spaceship without hesitation now that is courageous.' The general turned to the battlefield, just about every alien in the first wave had been killed but the second wave was about to hit, he turned back to the Colonel. 'Will you make war by my side?'

The Colonel's chest swelled with pride. 'It would be the greatest honour of my life.'

Together the Colonel and brigadier general charged down the ridge hurling themselves headlong into battle.


	20. New chapter

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